Author Archives: MikeB

It seems we have been made to suffer…

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We have been teaching a class on the Foundations of the Christian Life. We are using C. Michael Patton’s book, Now That I’m a Christian, as a guide (see review here).

This week we tackled several questions related to God and evil – questions like ‘what is evil’ and how do we address the ‘problem of evil’.

While the mindless philosopher C3PO may be right that “we seem to be made to suffer”, the question is how does this fit with the notion of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and good God. Why is it that “bad things” happen to “good” people? Continue reading →

Survival Guide to the End Times

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If you are looking for how to survive a zombie apocalypse you might be in the wrong place. But during a recent discussion about the end times, as it relates to Jesus’ return, it became clear that the various terms and views can be very confusing.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is my attempt to lay out the various views of the end times. Given my background as a software engineer, you might see some resemblance to a flowchart.
EndTimesGuide.jpg

C.S. Lewis on the Historical Point of View

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As Screwtape passes on his wisdom in how to keep people out of the Enemy’s camp (and thus away from Christianity), we find that one of the main tactics of the demon is ignorance. 

As always, the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind.

For example, the Enemy (God) wants us to be concerned with eternity (thinking about Himself) and the Present, Wormwood is reminded that his chief task is keeping the patient distracted and focused elsewhere.

Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. … [The Past] is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past… It is far better to make them live in the Future. … [as] nearly all vices are rooted in the future.

Continue reading →