R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 77

Creeds

Back at the turn of the millennium, the Southern Baptist Convention decided to modify their statement of faith which goes by the title, The Baptist Faith and Message. The 2000 revision added the following:

The Christian & the Social Order

All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society… in the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death…

And,

Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. … The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation… Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage.

I wrote a letter to the California Southern Baptist newspaper expressing my disagreement with this change. I was reminded of this when someone asked me today why the School of Theology website doesn’t have the up-to-date version of the Baptist Faith and Message. Primarily, it’s because I don’t agree with it. Of course, The Baptist Faith and Message is not supposed to be prescriptive, anyhow. It is supposed to be merely descriptive since Baptists don’t believe in creeds. If you are required to agree with a statement of faith, it has become a creed–and no matter how much you claim to believe that the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice in the church, if you have to abide by a creed, regardless of what you call it, that creed has replaced the Bible as the final authority for faith and practice. I won’t abide that.

So, anyhow, here is what I wrote to the California Southern Baptist; they actually published part of it:

The problem I have with the recent amendments to the Baptist Faith and Message, condemning homosexuality as a sin and telling wives to submit to their husbands are as follows:

1. If we believe that homosexuality is a sin, why do we feel the need to list that one sin in particular? If we’re going to start listing sins, then we need to list all of them. Anything else doesn’t make any sense. After all, salvation is by grace, not by works. Why should we be emphasizing a specific sin? Didn’t Jesus and Paul both say that the law is summarized with the statement that we should love God and love our neighbor as ourselves? Then why this need to pick out this one sin above all others? I’m sorry, but I just don’t approve of fan clubs for specific sins, however useful bandying them about may be for the purpose of rallying troops and raising funds. It misses the point of what we’re about.

2. I don’t have a problem with wives submitting to their husbands; however, stopping there creates a false sense of what we as Christians are called to do. After all, if we look at Ephesians 5:21 we discover that all of us, regardless of gender, are supposed to submit to one another. That puts what follows in 5:22 about wives submitting in a little different light. So my argument against the recent addition to the Baptist Faith and Message is essentially that it has taken a biblical passage out of context and focused on only half an issue. I think it would be useful, if we want to think about the nature of our interpersonal relationships, to also consider what Jesus had to say about leadership in Matthew 20:25-28 (Cf. Mark 10:42-45, Luke 22:25-27):

“Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

The interesting passage in 1 Corinthians 7:4 also indicates that the point, scripturally, is mutual submission: “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.”

We need to recognize that submission is an act of love motivated by a free will choice; it cannot be made to happen. The meaning of the term “submit” in Ephesians 5, and the point of Paul’s argument, can be summed up in Matthew 22:36-40:

“‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’

“‘Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (cf. Galatians 5:14 and Romans 13:8-10)

Everything boils down to loving one another. Jesus is so bold as to say that love is the whole point of the Bible: its central theme. Everything else is commentary. Thus, any interpretation we make of the Bible must make sense in light of the two commands, to love God and to love people. If our conclusion puts us at odds with either of these commandments, we can be certain that we have failed to interpret a passage correctly. If our attitudes toward one another violate the spirit and letter of 1 Corinthians 13 (Paul’s famous passage explaining what love is), then we are out of line.

Those men who are uncomfortable with the equality of women should ask themselves a slightly modified version of a question Abraham Lincoln asked those who advocated slavery. Would you like to be a slave? If the answer is no, as it must be, then perhaps it is obvious that slavery is a violation the golden rule. Likewise, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of being forced into a subservient role yourself, how can you in good conscience advocate it for others?

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Message

The word of the LORD came to me: Mortal, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, mortal, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight; you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house. You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile; and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as those do who go into exile. Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry the baggage through it. In their sight you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land; for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.

I did just as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands; I brought it out in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight. (Ezekiel 12:1-7)

A picture is worth a thousand words. Houses in the ancient Middle East were usually built of clay bricks, mixed with straw. Digging through such a brick wall was as easy as digging a shallow hole in the ground. But it wasn’t the sort of thing that people ever did. Thus, Ezekiel’s peculiar behavior would have attracted attention—which of course was God’s point in having him do it.

God used Ezekiel to illustrate the words that he had spoken to his people. God hoped that his people might pay more attention to his illustrated message than they usually did to his text only presentations. What story were Ezekiel’s actions the pictures for?

Ezekiel was living in Babylon. Back in Jerusalem, Zedekiah was sitting on David’s throne. He had been put there by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, after Zedekiah’s nephew Jehoiachin had rebelled. Learning nothing from his predecessor, Zedekiah rebelled, too, and so Nebuchadnezzar attacked. Zedekiah tried sneaking away by night. Nebuchadnezzar captured him, killed his children and then blinded him, before hauling him away in chains back to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem and its temple to the ground.

Zedekiah had refused to listen to Jeremiah. The exiles in Babylon paid about as much attention to Ezekiel. God is speaking even now, whether we chose to listen to him or not. We’d do well to listen.

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Promise Breaker

But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery.

That’s when the LORD told me to say to the people:

I am the LORD God of Israel, and I made an agreement with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. As part of this agreement, you must let a Hebrew slave go free after six years of service.

Your ancestors did not obey me, but you decided to obey me and do the right thing by setting your Hebrew slaves completely free. You even went to my temple, and in my name you made an agreement to set them free. But you have abused my name, because you broke your agreement and forced your former slaves back into slavery.

You have disobeyed me by not giving your slaves their freedom. So I will give you freedom—the freedom to die in battle or from disease or hunger. I will make you disgusting to all other nations on earth.

You asked me to be a witness when you made the agreement to set your slaves free. And as part of the ceremony you cut a calf into two parts, then walked between the parts. But you people of Jerusalem have broken that agreement as well as my agreement with Israel. So I will do to you what you did to that calf. (Jeremiah 34:12-18)

What part of loving each other didn’t they get? Although God did not forbid slavery, he did regulate it heavily. The only reason people became slaves in Israel was because of economic hardship. Such slavery was supposed to be temporary. After seven years, slaves were supposed to be set free. Unfortunately, the Israelites never abided by that agreed to limitation. Instead, they kept their fellow Israelites in permanent bondage. So God sent Jeremiah to warn the Israelites to repent or else.

One day the rich slave-owners finally decided to obey God and release their slaves in a grand public ceremony. They even made a formal promise to God about it. Such formal promises were confirmed, not by signing on the dotted line, but by sacrificing animals and walking between their cut up pieces. But almost at once, the slave-owners re-enslaved their slaves. So, not only had the violated the original promise their ancestors made to God in the time of Moses, they had violated the agreement they themselves had just made! God told them they were in big trouble.

Harming others, especially harming the disadvantaged and powerless, is one of the surest way to upset God. God doesn’t like bullies.

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God Will Rescue

For this is what the LORD says:

“When I sold you into exile,

I received no payment.

Now I can redeem you

without having to pay for you.”

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “Long ago my people chose to live in Egypt. Now they are oppressed by Assyria. What is this?” asks the LORD. “Why are my people enslaved again? Those who rule them shout in exultation. My name is blasphemed all day long. But I will reveal my name to my people, and they will come to know its power. Then at last they will recognize that I am the one who speaks to them.” (Isaiah 52:3-6)

What’s a nice person like you doing in a place like this? God points out that his people are where they are because of their own free choice. God didn’t get paid for sending them to exile and so it wouldn’t cost him anything to get them out of it, either. They went to Assyria because of their idolatry and because of their mistreatment of the poor and powerless. They had been warned prior to their exile that if they kept up their bad behavior that the Assyrians would come and take them away. They had freely chosen to ignore both Moses and the prophets after him.

No problem, however. God would rescue them anyhow, if for no other reason than to silence those who blasphemed and rejoiced over the suffering of his people. Both the new slave masters and his enslaved people would come to know God’s power—once again—and once again, they would recognize the one true God. Never again would the Israelites worship any other God than Yahweh.

God will rescue us, and not just because we don’t want to hurt anymore, but because of what we mean to him. It really is all about God.

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SpaceX Dragon V2

SpaceX has revealed the crewed version of their Dragon capsule. Fully reusable, the first flight with humans will likely occur in 2015 or 2016. What is shown in the video is not a mockup; it is actual flight hardware.

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Space X Falcon 9 First Stage Recovery

When SpaceX last launched their Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station on their Falcon 9, they attempted to soft land the first stage booster propulsively. Since this was just a test, they brought it back over the Atlantic Ocean. Despite very stormy weather, they succeeded! There was a camera looking down the side of the booster as it came down toward the water; unfortunately, the video that was received was in very poor condition; here is the RAW footage and SpaceX’s attempt at repairing it:

SpaceX put the RAW video up on their website and wrote:

In an effort to see if the video can be improved further, below are links to both the original data file as well as the repaired source file. The file labeled “raw.ts” is an extraction of the raw MPEG bitstream from the rocket. Our software team attempted to repair the data, resulting in the “repair1.ts” file, and the partial video above. We welcome anyone to download the raw file to make improvements directly—if you are successful, please feel free to post your video at: http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/24bsn2/first_stage_landing_video/.

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/raw.ts

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/repair1.ts

Volunteers at NasaSpaceflight.com took up the challenge and have made amazing progress in recovering usable video; see the dramatic improvement in the video thus far (and they’re not done yet!):

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Orion

Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

According to Wikipedia:

Exploration Flight Test 1 or EFT-1 (previously known as Orion Flight Test 1 or OFT-1) is the first planned uncrewed test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Set to launch on December 4, 2014 atop a Delta IV Heavy from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the mission will be a multi-hour, two-orbit test of the Orion Crew Module featuring a high apogee on the second orbit and a high-energy reentry at around 20,000 miles per hour (32,000 km/h; 8,900 m/s). This mission design is essentially equivalent to that of the Apollo 4 mission of 1967, which validated the Apollo flight control system and heat shield at re-entry conditions planned for the return from lunar missions.

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Welcome

“Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD say,

‘The LORD will never let me be part of his people.’

And don’t let the eunuchs say,

‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’

For this is what the LORD says:

I will bless those eunuchs

who keep my Sabbath days holy

and who choose to do what pleases me

and commit their lives to me.

I will give them—within the walls of my house—

a memorial and a name

far greater than sons and daughters could give.

For the name I give them is an everlasting one.

It will never disappear!

“I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD,

who serve him and love his name,

who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest,

and who hold fast to my covenant.

I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem

and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.

I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,

because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

For the Sovereign LORD,

who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says:

I will bring others, too,

besides my people Israel.” (Isaiah 56:3-8)

It’s human nature to exclude the outsider. It is also the human fear: those in a new job, a new school, a new place, experience the fear of not belonging.

But God reassured those not originally a part of Israel that his arms were always open wide. God announced that anyone who came to him was welcome and would become as much a member of his people as those who had lived in his land their whole lives.

God reminded the Israelites, as much as he announced to those new immigrants, that they were not allowed to exclude anyone. Despite God’s words to Moses requiring the Israelites to be kind to outsiders, it was a hard lesson for the Jewish people to learn. Their reluctance to bring God’s message of hope to the Gentiles—the outsiders—continued from Jonah’s reluctance to go to Nineveh, to an early church that doubted that Gentiles could ever become followers of Christ.

Likewise, God granted the future to eunuchs, those who had no way of passing their memory beyond the present since they would forever be childless. Their future, God said, was not dependent on the children they couldn’t have, but on their relationship with an eternal God who could never forget them.

God is not exclusive; God is not hard to come to. God welcomes all and we are not allowed to exclude anyone. Everyone is good enough for God.

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What, Me Worry?

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,

And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

‘I am the First and I am the Last;

Besides Me there is no God.

And who can proclaim as I do?

Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,

Since I appointed the ancient people.

And the things that are coming and shall come,

Let them show these to them.

Do not fear, nor be afraid;

Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?

You are My witnesses.

Is there a God besides Me?

Indeed there is no other Rock;

I know not one.’ ” (Isaiah 44:6-8)

No one can stop God. All the supposed power and attributes of all the gods that the Israelites knew of from the people around them were combined into just the one God—their God—the only God that really existed. The Israelite’s neighbors, Egypt and Mesopotamia, not to mention the Canaanites, believed there were many gods—and since there were many, they were in conflict with one another. Each had his or her own agenda. The gods did not get along. The gods were like squabbling bureaucrats, each striving for advantage and prestige. So sometimes people got caught in the crossfire between them. Just because a god wanted something to happen didn’t mean that some other god couldn’t stop it. Just because you faithfully obeyed your god didn’t mean some other god might not get mad at you.

God reassured his people that there was only him to contend with. Unlike the non-existent gods their neighbors—and all too often the Israelites—worshipped, Yahweh was firmly reliable. He was strong, he was united, and he would take care of them in a consistent way. What he had said, that’s what would happen. There wasn’t some other god trying to thwart his goals.

God’s will was going to happen: he had a plan, and he knew what he was doing. So what have we ever got to worry about?

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Dwarf Planets

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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