I’m not real familiar with John MacArthur. Really all I know about him is that Doug Pagitt called his theology “dangerous”, or something like that. But I was in Mardel a few weeks ago and The Truth War was on sale for $11. How could I pass that up?

If you poke around my archives you’ll find that I’m no fan of the Emergent Village or the movement that it has spawned. I don’t like the theology of McLaren, Pagitt, or Jones. I keep reading them, though; mainly because I hope for the sake of the church that I’ve been misunderstanding them. I don’t think I have been, but I’ll keep checking.

The subtitle of MacArthur’s book is “Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception”, which is very fitting. The main focus is on rooting out apostasy and heresy. He looks back historically at several instances of this, including Sabellianism, Arianism, and the Judaizers. He looks thoroughly at the theological issues, and the ways that these leaders succeeded in deceiving so many into believing falsely.

He then brings it into the our time by examining Modernity, postmodernity, and the emerging church. He points out the desire of many leading the charge into postmodernity to make truth “pliable”.

One dominant theme pervades…in the Emerging Church movement, truth (to whatever degree such a concept is even recognized ) is assumed to be inherently hazy, indistinct, and uncertain - perhaps even ultimately unknowable.

(continue reading…)

I was on vacation in Disney World for the last six days, just got back in from Orlando last night. It was a great trip and I’ll be sharing plenty of thoughts about it soon.

One of my goals for the week was to knock off at least two of my unfinished books, which I did.  I finished John MacArthur’s The Truth War, and John Twelve Hawks’ The Dark River.  Both were great, and I’ll be putting together a review of The Truth War today.  I won’t review the other because I couldn’t do it without spoiling some stuff.  If you don’t know about it, check out Hawks’ The Traveler, which is the first in the series.  Great stuff.

Also, today is my birthday, I’m 26, and feeling somewhat unaccomplished.  I read about a 26 year-old in Wired who is redefining the connection between art and science, and thinking, “Hey, last week I redefined the connection between Halo and Firefly. That’s got to count for something, right?”  My wife, the wiser of our motley crew, reminded me that I’m happy and healthy and have more in the way of friends, family, and material blessings than most of our friends. I felt better.  Also, I’d like to say “Happy Birthday!” to Obie Trice (30), Condoleeza Rice (53), Prince Charles (59), Josh Duhamel (35), Curt Schilling (41), D. B. Sweeney (46), Yanni (53), and Boutros Boutros-Ghali (85).

About a month ago my wife decided she wanted us to go organic.  So we’ve been to a couple of natural food stores and bought some organic meats and vegetables…we’re just getting started, so we don’t want to go overboard.  We still go to Wal-Mart for the basics: the TPs (toothpaste and toilet paper), diapers, movies, and what have you.

Today we were on our way home from one such supply run and I said,  “You know, we’re supposed to be going organic, and we’re about to build a fire from fake wood.”

I’m a waiter at a local restaurant. Generally I’m pretty good at it, mainly from experience (I’ve been waiting tables on and off for about 9 years). I work hard, and I’m good at my job.

Today I was not. Today was like the giant came down Jack’s beanstalk and pinned me down with his thumb…then watched me squirm for 2 or 3 hours. I gave some of the worst service I can remember in my long (and largely unremarkable) career as a waiter. I won’t get into the details, but we’ll say I got a stern talking-to from one of my managers for my sorry performance, and had one very unhappy customer.

When my tables started to empty, I was just glad to be alive and still employed. I was ready give up and just go through the motions for the rest of the day, when a strange thing started to happen…I got good tips. Not just regular old 15%, but 20, 25, even 30! I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t even get the right drinks and food to my tables. One lady had the wrong drink for 10 minutes before I realized and went back to switch it. But the tips were bueno.

The way I see it, God was telling me something. I thought I was good, and I thought I earned what I have. I’ve got some decent skill at this, and I have a good attitude and something resembling a personality, so I deserve this. But today God said simply, “No, you don’t.” (continue reading…)

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