Review of "Letters From a Skeptic"

Greetings Friends,
At Andy's behest, this entry is about theology. I've finished reading the book "Letters From a Skeptic," which is a collection of correspondence between Dr. Gregory A. Boyd and his skeptical father, Ed.

The book starts with Dr. Boyd imploring his father to expound on the problems he has with Christianity and inquiring of him why he is an atheist. The father, Ed, responds that his lack of faith is not an affirmative position, but rather one based on his inability to reconcile the principles of Christianity with life.

Throughout the book, Dr. Boyd provides explanations to his father's concerns, and slowly throughout the course of the letters, in three years' time, Ed transforms from an avowed atheist to a Christian adherent. The book is described as being put together that it might have a similar impact on other skeptics.

I give this book a favorable review. The questions asked are very elemental concerns that both Christians and unbelievers may have. No doubt there are those who would disagree with Dr. Boyd's answers to all his questions, but he sums up Christianity very concisely: God wants to have a relationship with people. He does this by sending Christ Jesus to pay for our sinful nature. This gift of atonement is readily available to all who would ask for and receive it, whereupon we are given not just life, but that we might live more abundantly. One doesn't have to be perfect to receive the gift, in fact that's why we need a savior in the first place, because we aren't perfect. Only by God's grace may we enter into our Father's loving arms.

Until next time,
Matt

To Twitter, and Beyond!

Hey everyone. I'm testing some RSS feed capabilities. So I'm piping my blog entries into twitter: user edgarmontrose and from there, I'm pulling down updates from Twitter into my facebook profile.

Hope this works! More to come.

Matt

Blackbeard, Part 2

Here's part 2 of my review of the Miniseries "Blackbeard". Angus MacFayden (Robert the Bruce in Braveheart) plays Blackbeard. His character seems oddly reminiscent of Ricky Gervais in the British version of "The Office."

Until next time,
Matt

Blackbeard Miniseries.

So I got this miniseries "Blackbeard" from Mr Movies as they were going out of business in Fairmont. I paid $3.33 for 165 minutes of film, but I may have been overcharged...

Until next time,
Matt

Snow

Advent Conspiracy

Greetings friends.

Please see this informational video about the group Advent Conspiracy.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

The Last King of Scotland

First of all, the title is misleading. I hate it when hollywood does this sort of thing - giving a work an obscure title based on some slight phraseology during the course of the film. It might better be called "The life and times of Idi Amin's rule in Uganda."

The story does explain the title, but to paraphrase an old saying in Texas, "don't get fooled again." It is a compelling fictionalized account of a nationalist dictator who believes and in some ways did help the people of his country. In the process, he did rule ruthlessly against those that would oppose him. Machiavelli would have appreciated Amin, although free society may not. This interesting conflicted personality makes for an enjoyable film.

Until next time,
Matt

The Ten Commandments

Over the break I read the lastest in my stack of Worldwide Church publications: "The Ten Commandments." Like so much of the other pamphlets itemizing the now deprecated views of the Worldwide Church of God, this booklet explores each of the ten commandments and insists that we hold not the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law - to the extreme! Some of these are more insistent than others.

The booklet offers some sound advice on how to apply the ten commandments to everyday living, denouncing materialism, labor unions which abscribe to "steal" wealth from honest employers by not exchanging an honest day's work, as well as the employers who might "steal" an honest day's wage from laborers.

A lot of these things make sense, like don't lie to one another, but that is taken a step further by saying, you shouldn't "swear" to tell the truth in court, but rather "affirm" that you will tell the truth. Really? This semantic difference is going to adhere to or violate God's commandments?

As I have said of this literature before, there is something that can be gained by reading different perspectives, but study what is being declared as truth before believing it as such.

Until next time,
Matt