So I know that God is truth–I will follow Him and Him alone! It is not emergent, emerging, evangelical, or whatever other group you can name–none of them have a handle on truth–It is only in Christ that I can begin to get any kind of understanding on truth!

Truth is a person, namely Jesus Christ, and finally as I cool my anger–there are too many people who do not know Christ for us to concern ourselves with who is distorting what! Oh, yah God said he would sort all these matters out in the end–we are to just serve Him and Love Him and Love people as we ourselves have been Loved!

At best we all see as through a glass partially!

Though MacArthur has taken on some of the enemies of the Faith like McLaren and Rick Warren, he does so in a godly way. He allows the truth of God’s Word to speak to the issues.

His use of exegetical use of Jude is to be commended.

Where are all the warriors of truth? Are we letting the likes of McLaren and Warren go unchallenged? Are we allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by this postmodern culture? The long fight for the truth is a good fight. So let us fight for the truth!

http://www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg50-16.htm

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

There is a need to play catch up here along with admitting that the extended weekend with hubby off work didn’t find me making it to the read you offered. A sweet lady on a blog(Cherish the Home that developed from Be Not Conformed) talked about “best” versus “good”. I’m simply glad to be God’s workmanship and trust He’ll have me read the article when the time is right for me to digest it without homefront interruption. Hope you don’t take it personally.

Posted October 14, 2005 04:43 PM

“Montana is what it is today because of the lack of people. When new people move in they bring their tainted big city ways. Just look at what has happened to the western side of the state like you mentioned. Real Estate values climbed so high that the locals couldn’t compete. But those rich California imports sure prospered at the hands of the poor locals.

“If you saw Bozeman in the early 70’s when I went to school down there you just wouldn’t believe a valley could change so much in a few years.

“Once what was lush green farmland is no selling for a million dollars an acre as commercial land. It takes a million dollars just to belong to a spiffy club up at Big Sky where they are destroying native forests to make big home for the rich and famous. A road building project through all that beautiful timber there right now is slated to last another seven years. It makes a native Montana boy want to cry.

“Montana is a better place because of the lack of people…. JMHO”

I’m a native Californian. Phil is from Montana.

This all makes much more sense to me now. I’ve known for a long time that we all read Scripture through cultural lenses, and we are attracted to certain theological systems based on our cultural values as well. It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen the resulting conflicts up close and personal.

When he took his grandson with home, I googled “Montana mindset” and found the quote below.

I have never seen what regional and cultural differences can do to color the Christian community’s discourse before! Thank God for insight, understanding, and wisdom.
_________________________________

“The cattleman’s ideal was to find a large isolated area with as few neighbors as possible. Little cooperative effort would be needed under such ideal conditions to produce or get his product to market He was, perforce, unsocial.

“He did not seek cooperation, but came to it when the presence of neighboring herds forced it upon him. Unlike the farmer, his financial rewards were greatest when his isolation was the most complete.

Cooperatives did not come in order to remedy the evils of isolation but to meet the problems created by the presence of too close neighbors. The frontier farmer cooperated because such action meant roads, rising land values and social amenities; the cattleman cooperated to preserve, as best he could, the conditions that were naturally his through isolation.

“The open range is dead but the psychology of that era seems to persist when people see immigrants largely as a threat, a hostile force, and overlook the benefits which go with larger population and closer neighbors. I have not been reciting the cultural poverty of Montana because I want you to hate me or because I advise you all to move away.

“My point, in case it has been lost, is that those presently here have more to gain than they have to lose from attracting more people or just admitting more people who are naturally attracted by the beauty of this lovely place.”

“As an occasional visitor I have been struck several times by the contrast between the great beauty and resources of Montana and the aimless, shiftless, restless demeanor of the young people loitering about and uninspired by these resources which I gather are beyond their grasp. This contrast set in to thinking. I hope it may do the same for you.”

Ernest Osgood, “The Day of the Cattleman,” p 115.

Is there such thing a right answer?

Does the Bible have the right to tell you how to think?

In Christ,
Phil.