Tim Abbott

Jesus and the dinosaurs

Thanks to Dan Kimball for posting this.

We laughed. We nearly cried. We printed it out and stuck it on the wall.

I'm really not sure what to make of it. I think it could be subtitled, "where fundamentalism meets paleontology". But I'm not really sure.

Dan wonders whether this was truly from a Christian children's colouring book. I hope not...
I'm still confused...

You could also see Dinosaur Comics!

Jesus Film in anime

The Jesus Film has been dubbed into over 1000 languages and is probably the most watched film in history. But it's starting to look a bit dated. So the people behind it have started a project to create an anime version, reusing the many existing soundtracks in all the languages it's been translated into.

The Visual Translation Project is the homepage to the whole project.

They've uploaded some concept videos to YouTube. These are just visuals, not finished animation, but are designed to give a feel for the idea. The film is likely to take about 2 years to complete and in the meantime The Visual Translation Project is actively seeking feedback here. There's also a survey which includes five different sample styles to choose from.

This looks like a great way to update what is honestly a rather dated production - we've avoided using it in schools out of embarrassment. So we'll be watching developments here with interest.

Bible Geocoding

A few people have picked up on this. Bible Geocoding from OpenBible means you can now find every place named in the Bible on Google Earth. You can view places for the whole Bible, or individual books. And if you don't want to open up Google Earth, you can view the information for individual books in a browser window thanks to Google Maps.

But there's more... An atlas of place names with their linked Bible references. And links to photos of locations in the Bible. However, they do admit, "These photos use the Flickr and Panoramio APIs and are thus of varying quality—many of them just happen to be of people or places near the ancient locations."

Then there's overlays of historic maps which integrate with Google Earth terrain data.

The whole site is well worth a look.

[graphic: OpenBible]

Feminism and scripture

An interesting post from Scott McKnight exploring issues raised in John Stackhouse's new book Finally Feminist.
I've always said I don't have a problem with women in leadership. I know many women who are superb leaders, and quite a few men who are not. I think the issue is fundamentally about quality of leadership, not gender.
But as well as exploring the issue of gender and leadership, Scott identifies in Stackhouse some  important ideas that influence the way we approach our understanding of scripture. On the whole, I find them very helpful. As you might expect, there is a lively discussion following in his comments section.

In a similar vein, John Stackhouse on his own blog asks, Does the Trinity prove anything about gender? Not much.  He concludes:

Many theologians (I among them) strongly endorse circumspection when it comes to the attempt to use one of the great mysteries of the faith—the internal life of God in the Trinity—to shed light on some other doctrine. Some doctrines do require deployment of the doctrine of the Trinity to understand them properly—most notably Christology, soteriology, and pneumatology. But the question of gender seems to be one of those theological subjects not much improved by reference to the Trinity—as is evidenced by the fact that everyone seems to be able to selectively access this doctrine in the interest of contradictory understandings of gender.

The God who is speaking

Just came across this quote from AW Tozer in Turnings by Guy Chevreau.

I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the scriptures of truth. A silent God suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed into silence again forever. Now we read the book as a record of what God said when he was for a brief time in a speaking mood. With notions like that in our heads how can we believe? The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. He is by nature continuously articulate.

Guy goes on to say; "Because our heavenly Father loves us more than we will ever love him, he is forever caling and drawing us deeper in his love. This, more than any other call, is that which he is initiating, and to which he invites us to respond."

Bible printing in China

An article in The Times on Saturday about the phenomenal growth of Bible printing in China.

Such is the demand in China for Bibles that Amity Printing can scarcely keep pace. Early next year it will move into a new, much larger factory on the edge of the eastern city of Nanjing to become the world’s single-biggest producer of Bibles.

Bibles and Beijing 2008

Thinking of going to the Olympics in Beijing?

According to this page on the official Beijing 2008 web site:

Note: Each travel is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China.

This is because:

Any printed material, film, tapes that are 'detrimental to China's politics, economy, culture and ethics' are also forbidden to bring into China.

So now you know. But just in case you have any suspicions, you'll be relieved to know that:

China is a country with religious freedom and respects every religion.

according to information on this page. As Sir Humphrey used to say on Yes Minister, "Some might say that. I couldn't possibly comment."

In an interesting twist of irony, the 70 Bibles we recently purchased for a local secondary school on behalf of four local churches were printed in China, as you can see on the sides of the boxes in this picture.

 

Nebo-Sarsekim's receipt

Rare evidence in a nonbiblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible has been discovered in a tiny clay tablet at the British Museum. There are articles about it, with pictures of the tiny tablet, in The Times and The Telegraph.

According to our spirituality survey last autumn, by the age of 14 only about 21% of young people agree that Christianity is based on events that actually happened - 52% are unsure and 27% reject the idea. There seems to be little awareness of the historical basis for a good proportion of what is in the bible. Perhaps the media fixation with evolution and certain interpretations of Genesis creates the impression the whole thing is utterly debateable and founded on nothing but uncertainty.

In trying to break this logjam in understanding we explain how historical, and in particular achaeological, findings from non-biblical sources back up much of what we read in the bible. So today's finding is a useful example of the way such seemingly insignificant details can provide significant weight to our understanding of the historical accuracy of these parts of the Bible.

"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," said Dr Finkel from the British Museum. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power."

Little did Nebo-Sarsekim, a chief officer of King Nebuchadnezzar, realise that his clay tablet receipt for 0.75kg of gold for a temple in Babylon would survive nearly 2600 years and in so doing help to confirm the existence and events of the very people he marched to Jerusalem to enslave.

5 things I dig about Jesus

John Smulo has kicked off a blog meme on the subject of 5 things I dig about Jesus. As ever with these things, the aim is to post your answers and then tag 5 others (thanks Sally!) but John is also asking people to link their meme to his original post through the comments section. Got that?!!
I wasn't going to join in, but the question got stuck in the back of my mind and here's what came out.

Five things I dig about Jesus.

He didn't preach for decisions, he taught people to be disciples.
When he said, "All authority has been given to me - therefore go..." he didn't have a back-up plan, he meant it.
He wept.
He didn't allow himself to be a slave to need or opportunity, but only did what he saw his Father doing.
His life and ministry embodied the perfect balance of presence, proclamation and power.

If Amy, Tom or Jason are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

[pic: John Smulo]

Bit of a biblical barney...

Dave, at Cartoon Church, has been doing a great job of documenting the unfortunate barney going on between Spring Harvest and 'Word Alive'. It sort of revolves around different understandings of Christ's penal substitution for us on the cross, drawing in references (not all of them positive) to Steve Chalke, Pete Broadbent (for Spring Harvest), UCCF, Jeffrey John and Bishop Tom Wright. The real issue is the underlying tension between evangelicals about how we interpret scripture and what constitutes 'orthodox Christianity', but there are probably a number of other issues to do with church, leadership and biblical interpretation that underpin the rift.

It's good when we debate and I appreciate the biblical contributions of both sides in this sorry episode, but it's totally unhelpful when people disagree so vehemently. We're all reading the same bible and trying to apply it to our lives and the world we live in. Salvation and truth belong to God and I am glad that the truth holds me more than I hold the truth. There's more I could say, but I'm not sure it would come out quite right, and anyway, I need to get on with sending out our monthly prayer letter.

A good starting point for following the debate is this post by Dave More on the Spring Harvest/Word Alive kerfuffle. And whatever you think, pray blessing on both parties. This isn't about enemies, just differences.