Monday, April 30, 2007

Checking our presuppositions

You've seen the signs: My body, my choice.

J.P. Moreland says, "...The slogan is empty since it masks the real, fundamental issue: Is there a God who has ownership over our bodies, has he declared anything relevant to what renters can do regarding abortion, and how does one know the correct answers to these questions? This is where the debate should reside, not over misleading slogans about owning one’s body."

CS Lewis said that we get caught up in the point of view of our age and don't realize how much we have in common even with our opponents. We unknowingly share many of the same presuppositions.

In this piece, J.P. Moreland shows us where that has occurred in the abortion debate. We too often accept the basic premise when we shouldn't -- in this case, that it really is the woman's body. When this happens, we tend to try to answer the slogan. Professor Moreland shows us that it is sometimes better to pull the rug out from under the slogan.


As long as we journey through this world, there are going to be some opposed to the work of the Church. Some will oppose us with swords, some with tongues. The latter are the more dangerous. The blood of martyrs is the kingdom’s fertilizer, but an argument unanswered, or unwisely answered, will cause our work to lose face to those who need to see it at its best.

Verses I Wish Weren't in the Bible

Matt 7:21-23: Depart From Me

1 Cor 6:7: My Rights

Phil 1:29: Suffering for Christ

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Book reviews collection

I read quite a bit and try to share those books I have found useful. My reviews are posted periodically and collected here.

An extended summary and review of The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis

A brief summary and review of Living by the Book by Howard Hendricks – a book on Bible study methods

A brief summary and review of The Ever-loving Truth by Voddie Baucham – a book on Christian worldview and apologetics

A brief review of The Reason for God by Tim Keller, a popular Christian apologetic.

A briefs summary and review of The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight – a book on reading and applying the Bible.

Blogroll

My regularly scheduled blog stops:
Of First Importance
Between Two Worlds
SmartChristian.com
evangelical outpost
Jesus Creed
Scriptorium Daily
Mark D. Roberts.com

Other interesting blogs:
Average Joe
Voddie Baucham's Blog
Blogotional
Bock's blog
The Bumbling Genius
Challies Dot Com
The Christian Mind
Christian Thinker.net
The Constructive Curmudgeon (Douglas Groothuis)
Crossroads
Fide-O
First Things: On the Square
ID the Future
Mark O at Youth Specialties
Al Mohler's blog
Provocations & Pantings
RedBlue Christian
Right Reason
Stand to Reason blog
The Shepherd's Scrapbook
Tiger's Got My Back
Today's New Reason to Believe at RTB
Truth is Still Truth
Verum Serum
Ben Witherington's blog

Please let me know if you find dead links.

Useful Links

Bibles and Bible study resources:
Blue Letter Bible - You can search the Bible, use concordances in English or original languages, and access commentaries and other useful tools.

Bible Gateway - Most of the above plus audio of the Bible.

Crosswalk

ESV online

Other useful resources:

Stand to Reason - Apologetics organization with lots of free resources (plus materials you can purchase) including mp3 of the weekly radio show. Strongest on philosophical apologetics and abortion.

Reason to Believe - Apologetics organization with lots of free resources (plus materials you can purchase) including audio. Strongest on design and cosmological arguments.

Biblical Training.org - Offers free audio of classes in theology, apologetics, biblical studies, original languages, and more.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Online library of useful texts ranging from the 1st century AD to the 20th century as diverse as Josephus, Augustine, Spurgeon, and Chesterton all available for free.

Veritas Forum - Audio lectures on various topics by some big names and some not so big names all available for free.

bethinking.org - Audio lectures on various topics by some big names and some not so big names all available for free.

Please let me know if you find dead links.

About this blog

This blog is about making our way, and hopefully making a difference, as we travel through this world. My primary focus is on things that will strengthen us for the journey (an example, Ephesians 1), knowing and defending what we believe (an example, The Resurrection: A story no one would make up), and thinking about how to apply the Christian Faith to the world around us (an example, Immigration reform and Christianity).

This blog is also designed to be a launchpad for family and friends who are new to the internet and/or blogosphere and will occasionally be used to show off pictures of the kids to those friends and family.

I don't post every day, so a good way to keep up with this blog is through an RSS reader. (If you don't know what that is, here is a
useful explanation of RSS.)

(p.s. To those who get subscribe this blog's feed, let me apologize in advance for the way "old" posts will occasionally pop up. Blogger does not let me create pages, just posts, so I will occasionally add content as back-dated posts.)

Contact me

I welcome comments, questions, and constructive criticism at

cbrooks97[at]gmail[dot]com


About me

My name is Chris Brooks. (Before you blame someone else for what I've written, realize that mine is one of the most common names around. Here's another Chris Brooks' blog.)

I'm a thirty-something white male who was born and raised in a Christian home in small-town Texas, though I’m currently exiled to Houston. I’m married with two beautiful little girls (to date).

I've got a degree in physics, I work in health care, and I study theology and apologetics. I also write incessantly (occasionally I even get published). I have little formal theology education, so please consider me an authority on nothing and judge my writings based on the quality of my arguments. (See "
Be a quitter!" for more details.)

I started this blog because I have to write this stuff down anyway. Blogging will make me do it on a schedule and will hopefully make me learn to express myself more clearly. Plus, maybe, just maybe, someone will find some of this useful.

Hello world

I really don't have time to do this, but if I don't write this stuff down, I can't sleep. And since I'm writing it down, I might as well subject the world at large to my ruminations because, after all, everyone is incredibly interested in what I think about everything. At least, that's what I tell myself.


I’ll probably be posting about three times a week, so a feed reader (I use bloglines) is a good way to go if you’re interested. I’ll try to keep things short so as not to take up too much of anyone’s time. I’ve always had the gift of brevity, which doesn’t seem so much like a gift when the prof wants fifteen pages.