Tomorrow (3/10/12) I have the pleasure of reading a paper at the Southwest Regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. My paper (a beefed up chapter from my thesis) considers the skeptical claim that Matthew invented the virginal conception of Jesus to fulfill the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. If you would like to read it, click here: Did Matthew Conceive a Virgin–Isaiah 7.14 and the Birth of Jesus

Greetings to everyone!  And may I wish you a very wonderful Thanksgiving.  Early, I know….  Still, I don’t know exactly when I will be posting again on here, so I might as well wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving now, or I might be too late.

For those of you who are familiar with our family, you know how crazy and fun it can get around here.  These past few weeks have been just that.  CRAZY… but FUN too!  We had a great visit with Granny who came down to visit us recently, but after she left we were in the midst of end of semester panic time.  While I myself am not a student officially, I have been auditing Greek 101 this semester and have gotten to experience for myself just how crazy it can be to be Mom by day and student by night.  Ah, the lack of sleep…  And yet, here I am posting on this blog at midnight.  Silly.  I know.  Still, it has been nice to get a feel for what Greg does day in and day out.  STUDY.  Thankfully we are now enjoying a nice break for “reading week” and I’m trying to get caught up on my Greek… and Greg is making the most of his time by working on his Thesis.

It’s been a long time since we posted any pictures as well, for which I apologize.  It is not due to a lack of change in our children’s stature or appearance, although, I wouldn’t mind if that were the case.  They have been growing by leaps and bounds.  However, my camera was not functioning properly and was always giving me some error message whenever I would attempt to take some photographs.  However, for my birthday I received a new-to-me lens (Thanks, Susan!) which now allows my camera to take the wonderful pictures I enjoy.

God’s richest blessings on you all.

Here’s an old post reposted. (Greg Rhodea) 

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Hello All:

Some of you may be familiar with the book The Shack, by William P. Young. It has become an exceedingly popular and “trendy” Christian book, and many Christians are reading it, recomending it, and claiming to have been transformed by it. Right now it is the #5 overall best selling book on Amazon.com, and #1 best selling religious book. There is also much controversy concerning this book within the church at large, and so for these reasons combined, I read it this last Thursday on the way down to Dave’s wedding.

The verdict? Two big thumbs down.

It’s unfortunate, because I think this is a book that could have been good. It packs an emotional punch, and some of it is very biblical, very inspiring, and very helpful. However, much of it is not.

Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary and a leading evangelical Christian says it contains “undiluted heresy,” is “subversive,” “seductive,” and demands a revision of Christianity.

I agree. While much of this book is good, there is simply too much that is false for use to recommend it in good conscience. What’s that about the best lies containing a bit of truth?

I’ll give you a few quick examples, and then some links for you to investigate further.

#1 Trinitarian Heresy
The book features a man named Mack spending a weekend in a “shack” with the Trinity. God the Father is portrayed as an African American woman named “Papa,” Jesus is a Jewish man, and the Holy Spirit is a Asian woman named “Sarayu.” Apart from the obvious problems with God the Father and God the Spirit being portrayed as women (or any human, for that matter), the book goes even farther astray. I think the single greatest danger and problem with this book is that most of the substance of the book consistes of the author putting words in God’s mouth that may or not be based on Scripture (plenty of both, more of the latter). So God the Father (Papa), says this on page 99: “When we spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human…” On page 192, Papa again says: “in him (Jesus) we are now fully human…” This is heresy. God the Father and God the Father did not become human…only God the Son did. This may seem like a small issue, but it is really huge, and sets the stage for rampant misunderstandings of the Trinity and develop further in that paragraph and through the rest of the book.

The book also contains false teaching regarding the workings of the Trinity. The Bible portrays God the Son as submissive (yet equal) to God the Father (“Not my will, but yours,” etc). However, this is not what Papa says in the book. It is claimed that the Trinity is a “circle of relationship” with no hierarchy among them. Jesus says on page 145, “That’s the beauty of my relationship with Abba and Sarayu. Wew are indeed submitted to one another and have always been so and alway will be. Papa is as much subimitted to me as I to him, or Sarayu to me, or Papa to her. Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. In fact, we are submitted to you in the same way.” Mack then questions how this can be and how God could submit to him. Jesus answers: “Because we want you to join us in our circle of relationship. I don’t want slaves to my will; I want brother sand sisters who will share life with me.” So God the Father is submitted to God the Son, and both are somehow submitted to us as humans. The book goes on to explain that all authority and roles are because of sin and are evil. How does this fly when compared with Scripture?

#2 Incomplete Picture of God
Missing or vastly downplayed in this book are God’s righteousnes and Holiness. So when Mack asks God on page 119 “aren’t you the one spilling out great bowls of wrath and throwing people into a burning lake of fire?” and “Honestly, don’t you enjoy punishing those who disappoint you,” she (God) answers: “I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie. I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.” Now certainly part of that is true, but it also ignores some pretty compelling chunks of Scripture.

At this point, I am given to frustration, because there is simply so much that is wrong with this book and I don’t have to go into any more detail. There’s no clear communication of salvation, the author dances around Uninversalism, nothing but contempt is expressed for the instutution of the Church, and when God finally gets around to dealing with the protagonist’s core complaint, about why his little girl was murdered, Jesus really drops the ball and says that the girl’s death “Was no plan of Papa’s.”

If you are in any way interested in hearing more about this book, check out one of the two links below. This guys do a better job of dealing with the book than me.

Text Link: Dr. Al Mohler

http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/27/the-shack-the-missing-art-of-evangelical-discernment/

Audio Link: Dr. Al Mohler

Dr. Mohler devotes the second two thirds of his radio program dealing with this book. His commentary is brilliant, and you should listen. When it starts playing, skip ahead to minute 11, that’s when he starts dealing with the book. The relevent section is about 20 minutes long.

http://www.albertmohler.com/2008/04/11/a-look-at-the-shack-3/

Video Link: Mark Driscoll
Mark is the pastor of Mars Hills church in Seattle, and an awesome guy. This video is 8 minutes long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK65Jfny70Y

Later,

G

Hello everyone! We’re in the midst of re-creating our website with a new look and new features. Stay tuned and come back often!

Hello all!

School is going well down here in non-so-sunny Dallas!

Our semester is almost half over now, which is very hard to believe. Spring break is nigh upon us!

Anyway, it occurred to me that not everyone who checks this website from time to time (all two of you, hahaha) might be getting our email newsletter. If you’re not getting it, let me know, and I’ll rectify that immediately.

Thanks!

Greg & Company

Hello all:

Oh, look! It’s been three months since I’ve last posted! *shakes head in disgust*

Well, we had a great visit in Michigan. Somehow the ten weeks flew by in a few blinks of an eye, but we had a great time. We watched friends get married, played in the lake (the kids loved that), did some kiteboarding, nearly ran the boat up on the rocks in Lake Michigan (close call, that), helped out with various ministries at the church, studied Greek, hung out with my parents, and generally had a good time.

You all will breath a collective sigh of relief to learn that I DID study my Greek well enough to pass my test upon returning to Dallas.

School is in full swing already, and though I started hyperventilating and panicking when I first wrote out all my assignments, I suppose I’ll be able to do it (We who are about to die salute you).

I have five excellent classes, with great teachers, and I am looking forward to all of them immensely. I am taking: Intermediate Greek (hard), Elements of Hebrew I (harder), Angelology, Hamartiology, and Anthropology (fascinating), History of the Church to the Modern Era (history=awesome), and OT History II & Poetry (20% of the Bible in a 2-credit class, AKA compressed!).

It’s good to be in Dallas and settle back into the routine. The kids rejoiced to see their toys, and we have been enjoying the swimming pool at least once a day (well, ok, we missed one day).

We hope all is well with you!

Later!

Greg

Or the semester, at least.

Once again, I apologize for the alarming amount of time I have allowed to elapse between posts. What can I say about this, other than to point to it as a clear and continuing example of man’s depravity?

Or mine, at least.

I am currently sitting at a desk in the laundry room at Kailoni’s parents’ house in California. My tinny speakers are pounding out music from Ireland’s second best rock band, all of it in near-perfect time with the aggressive rumble of the washing machine directly behind me.

This little room has become my dwelling of choice as I try to preserve my Greek studies and myriad other projects against all the happy interruptions of my two darling children. They are cute as crustaceans, but boy, are they good at derailing me.

Yet I get ahead of myself.

We had a great couple months finishing out the semester at DTS. My class grades are slowly trickling in, proving that I had my act together, more or less. It’s hard to believe that our first semester is done; somehow we know that after a few blinks of the eye we’ll be packing up and headed off to the next big thing.

Kailoni and the kids flew off to CA a week before I did, leaving me seven whole days to finish my assignments and reflect on the blessings of marriage. As pleasant as it was to have the children’s toys remain where I put them for more than a minute and a half, I quickly realized that a well-ordered house is no comparison to the joys of having them around–even when they’re shrieking like cheerleaders on the other side of a locked laundry-room door.

Additionally, during my recent spat of bachelorhood, I quickly re-learned how incapable I really am at putting myself to bed. First: “Well, I need to read some of this book before I go to bed.” Then: “I might as well start watching a movie on Netflicks, after all, it’s free.” Then: “I should really go to bed, and frankly this movie is terrible, but I’m already half done watching it, so I might as well just finish.” …and so on.

But now we are all united together in CA for a month of vising Kailoni’s family. They live up the mountains of San Bernardino, so it is a very beautiful place to be. So why do I find myself spending such a large proportion of my day in the laundry room, being lulled into a stupor by the drone of the washing machine?

Well, I have declared this the Summer of Greek. See, I took two years of it at Moody, and I have to take all of it all over again at DTS–unless I re-learn some of what has turned to rust inside my great red melon. So I bought the textbooks DTS uses, and I’m studying like a mad Jeopardy contestant in order to pass an advanced standing test when I return to campus in August. This feat of linguistic audacity would allow me to test out of two whole semesters of Greek (or three, depending on how much self-loathing I want to put myself through over the next 12 weeks). All of this, of course, rides on the level of my own personal discipline, a prospect that has me a little nervous. But so far so good–I have been at it for three days, and have blown through 9 of the 35 chapters I have to cover. But don’t get to excited, the first five are just a glorified introduction, and the next four are easy. Yes sir, it’s chapter 10 that separates the men from the boys–or the Hellenists from the Barbarians, in this case.

Just call me Conan.

later,

Greg

PS We’ll be coming back to Michigan on or around June 15, for just about two months. We look forward to seeing many of you then!

Hello all:

Wow, it’s been over a month since I wrote on here. I apologize, and repent in sack-cloth and ashes (well, at least in ashes).

Furthermore, every so often, I guiltily think of the list of names and email addresses we collected for our newsletter–I hear their voices crying out to me from their box: “Use us, use us, use us!” Be not afraid, little slips of paper…you shall fulfill your purpose, when the time has fully come (and a thousand years is as a day, in my sight…).

Life is proceeding along admirably here. The weather has been warm, the schoolwork has been interesting, and the kids have been sick (this is less than admirable, I admit). Chavi and Josiah have now had strep throat TWICE since we moved here in January, and a couple of weeks ago Chavi had her second febral seizure since being here (a sidenote: The computer tells me that “febral” is mis-spelled, and suggests “feral” as the correct alternative; thank you, technology [a further sidenote: as it happens, the computer is correct about it being wrong...my double-redundant {a third sidenote: Is "double-redundant" itself redundant? I think so!} spell-check provides me with what I trust to be the correct spelling: febrile]). Thank you to all of you who prayed and inquired about her during that period; I’m happy to say she is fine. The doctors stressed that these are very common, do no damage to the kids (despite being scary), and go away by the age of five. That being said, we need to just watch her and try to keep fevers low.

The kids are very cute, by the way. Josiah is developing quite the little personality, and has begun “talking.” I put it in quotes, of course, because while he is quite able to make his wishes known, he sometimes does so in very non-traditional ways. Here’s a short lexicon to interpret his will:

VOCALIZATIONS
“Da” (while pointing at something)=”Excuse me, Daddy, what is that right there?”
“Ba”=lamp, light, ball, bus, bath, water, etc…
“Ba-ba“=water or bubble bath
“Nun” (as in “nun, nun!)= the noise made by cars, buses, trucks, and trains
“*gurgling noises*”=intense desire for something, usually a drink or goldfish crackers…often whatever drink I am having
“Fsh“=fish
*blood-curdling screams*=”Attend to me immediately!”

SIGN LANGUAGE
*rubbing hands up and down on chest*=please
*touching index fingers together*=more
*pulling Chavi’s hair*=”I want you to die”
*kissing*=kissing (I love you?)
*moving hand away from mouth in an extended way*= “Thank you”
*pulling at diaper and gurgling*=”Excuse me, but I fear I have soiled my loins. Could you find it in your heart to wipe my butt before it becomes gangrenous?”
*urgently mimicking the milking of a cow with both hands*=Do I really need to translate this one?
*clapping*= “I am happy,” or “I see the yellow bus,” or “I’m about to watch TV,” or “Chavi is excited about something, and I might as well be too!”
*hitting his own head as hard as he can against the nearest wall*=”I am very angry, and I demand that you concede to my will NOW, or I will be forced to do irreparable harm to myself” (he does this nearly every time something happens he doesn’t like. Hopefully he grows out of this before college…).
*bringing a book to you and trying to climb your leg*= “Daddy, I want you to read this book to me. The stakes are pretty high, because if you don’t, I will hit my head against the wall and probably damage my brain. Even if I don’t, in 18 years when I am a freshman at college, you will think back upon this missed opportunity to spend time with me and weep. Father, I counsel you to sow well for the present, that you might reap but few regrets in the future.”

There is much more that could be said upon this topic, but if you use the above tips, you will be able to understand the gist of his intent.

In other happy news, Kailoni and I have developed the unusual ability to sleep every night by levitating six feet above the floor. While you obviously suspect this is accomplished by the powers of the occult, I fear that here you are wrong. Through a systematic search of the internet, we discovered a place to buy an incredible technology that turns out queen-sized bed into a loft. As such, we know have the mattress way up in the are, and underneath the bed (Called the “Greg-Cave,” by some…ok, well, by me), Kailoni and I each have a desk for our computers (and a filing cabinet, and a little tupperware thing of drawers). There is just enough room for us to sit up in bed without hitting our heads, and enough room underneath to sit in our chairs without hitting our heads. This is a fine accomplishment, and I look forward to providing you with photographic evidence in the future (but don’t hold your breath on that one…).

It is actually spring break here, which has been nice. My parents drove down to visit us this week, and they arrived Saturday about noon. It has been a lot of fun to hang out with them and watch them play with the kids. Today we were going to go to the Dallas Zoo, but a tire on the van insisted upon committing suicide right in the middle of a busy freeway (always suckers for a dramatic exit, those self-loathing radials). As we were struggling to pry loose the spare tire that had been rust-fused to the chassis of the car by years of UP road salt, I just happened to notice I was lying right next to the carcass of a dead dog that was going the way of all flesh. The dead dog was illustrative of the entire experience.

After we went and got new tires put on the van, we thought that perhaps we ought not attempt a trip back to the zoo (it might be too traumatic for the other tires to revisit the very place where they lost one of their mates [tires are polygamous, you know {at least ours are}]).

Instead, we decided on going on a walking tour of downtown Dallas, which we accomplished with much effect. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a great time to walk around aimlessly. We got to see the JFK assassination site, and a whole bunch of other downtown-Dallas-sort-of-stuff (I will resist the temptation to joke about the JFK assassination, other than to say that I didn’t see a grassy knoll anywhere, and that according to the episode of the X-Files I watched last week, the Cigarette Smoking Man killed JFK [Ditto with Martin Luther King Jr.]. If any of you are unfamiliar with the greatness that is the X-Files, you have my pity).

We are going to try to go kiteboarding tomorrow, we’ll see if the wind is favorable. I’m afraid that the lakes down here just make us want to go home! They are man-made, somewhat scuzzy, turgid-looking, and surrounded by rocks, broken glass, and nefarious-looking characters. Actually, I speak somewhat tongue in cheek (a sidenote: tongues are always in cheeks). I’m just really thrilled they actually have lakes around here you can kiteboard on. Dallas boasts its own kitebording shop, two different kiteboarding lesson companies, the largest kiteboarding meet-up group in the world, and a Dallas-based kiteboarding ministry called “Kiters for Christ.”

One sobering thing about the lake we are going to try to hit tomorrow is that there is a three foot wide opening in the rocks where you go in and out from the beach. That means if you can’t stay upwind, you’ll eventually flounder on the rocks and are attacked, killed, and eaten by the local molemen. If that is my fate tomorrow, know that I love you all; “Farewell, cruel world, I leave you now, I loved you never.”

Or some such.

If this entry seems rather rambling or inane, I apologize, and repent in sackcloth and ashes (well, at least in sackcloth).

Hey all:

Sorry for not posting in like 8 million years…but, we FINALLY got Internet at our house, so that will hopefully help me get my act together about keeping up with this the heady business of mass media.

So, I realize I haven’t said a whole lot about what we’ve been up to here…allow me to rectify. We moved into our on-campus married-student apartment, and are very happy with it. We’re on the ninth floor, and have a “spacious” one-bedroom unit with a study. In truth, it’s just the right size for us. The kids share the “study” as their bedroom, and I’m soon going to order a loft frame for our bed so we can get that up in the air and create some more room in our bedroom for an office (come on, if college kids can do it with a twin-size, we can do it with a queen!).

Our apartment building has two swimming pools (one for kids–4 inches deep at one end and 18 inches deep on the other), four gas grills we can use whenever we want, and a nice playroom for the kids. But the best part is that it is only across the street from my school, so I’m able to just walk back and forth (for lunch, etc…).

I am enjoying my classes immensely, and have been learning a lot. The nice thing is that, generally speaking, everything I’m studying and working on is exactly the sort of stuff I’m interested in. For example, for one class (OT History I), we’ve spent nearly a month studying through the book of Genesis, and I get to do a hefty research paper on a correct definition of the sovereignty of God vs wrong conceptions (Yay!). Here’s what all I’m taking:

Bible Study Methods and Hermeneutics:
This is the class I was most looking forward to when I came. It is taught by Dr. Howard Hendricks, who is something of a legend in Christian circles. He is a renowned teacher of the Bible, and has taught here at the seminary for over 50 years. To give you an idea of his legacy, he was a teacher and mentor to Chuck Swindoll when he was a student here (That was a long time ago!). Dr. Hendricks is in his 80s now I think, and is an incredible example for us, chock full of wisdom concerning studying the Bible and life in general. So far in this class we have focused on nothing but the first step of Bible study, which is observation. So far I’ve learned a lot more about how to better observe and analyze the scriptures before turning to other aids like commentaries.

Old Testament History I:
This class covers Genesis through Judges. We just started Exodus today. It has been good to carefully go through this book in class, and to study through it on my own (I also had to synthesize the entire book into a large chart, which really forced me to get familiar with the book). I now know more about Genesis than ever, and it’s great! My professor has written extensive expositional notes on the every book of the Bible, and he has posted them online for anyone to use. I highly recommend these. For example, he has a 300 page pdf file on the book of Genesis…I would urge you to download some of these and make use of them in your own Bible study. People have often offered to publish these in book form, but each publisher also wants the electronic rights. This means Dr. Constable would no longer be able to have them online for people to use free, and so he has decided to not publish them (Which I think is really cool!). Anyway, go to www.soniclight.com and download whatever book of the Bible you are interested in. I would suggest picking a book of the Bible to study and read a few chapters a day as well as the notes from Dr. Constable. Please let me know what you think if you do this!

Intro to Theology:
This is the first theology class here, and has been great. Here’s the course description: “A study of prolegomena as the nature, method, and sources of theology; revelation, especially the inspiration, authority, sufficiency, inerrancy and canonicity of the Bible; and theological hermeneutics, including an introduction to dispensationalism.

“ This is one of those classes that makes you think and challenges you so much that it seems to just fly by. So far we’ve been dealing what what exactly theology is, the need for theology, and the various forms it takes. So far so good!

Educational Processes of the Church:
This class focuses on just what the name implies…Christian education in the church. We are focusing on strategic planning concerning education, and are talking about topics like core values, mission statements, etc… I think this will be very helpful, and the main project has me designing the perfect discipleship program I’d like to see in a church.

Orientation and Research Methods:
This is just a one-credit hour course dealing with research writing. It’s not the most exciting stuff in the world, but critical to the rest of my time here. This class is done in two weeks.

Introduction to the New Testament:
This class doesn’t start for two more weeks. However, I’m very excited about it because it is taught by a renowned NT scholar, Dr. Darrell Boch. I primarily used his book on the DaVinci Code back when we were dealing with that, and it was very helpful. I’m looking forward to learning from him! (Here’s his blog: http://blog.bible.org/bock/)

I also have chapel four times a week, which has a variety of good stuff. For example, this week we have a four-day theological lectureship on Archaeology and Early Libyan Christianity. I have learned something I didn’t really “know” before…that Africa made unbelievably huge contributions to early Christianity. Augustine, Tertullian, and many others who were crucial to the early church’s theological development hailed from AFRICA. In fact, the first two centers of Christianity were in Asia Minor (say, in Antioch), and in northern Africa (Alexandria, etc). Isn’t that a strange thought? Africa had 500 years of huge Christian history…until the Muslims invaded. Anyway, it’s been good stuff to hear, even if some of it is over my head. The school actually puts all of the chapel services online, so you can watch them if you want. I strongly recommend watching the opening message Chuck Swindoll gave us back on January 14, as well as the message on January 15. If you check them out, let me know what you think. The link is: http://www.dts.edu/media/chapel/

Well, that’s enough for me. Time to go study! Miss you guys!