James White posted the following video and text on his blog. Everyone should see this!
To our Muslim readers: We worship one God, who has manifested Himself
in Three Persons. One Yahweh, one God, Three Persons. No association
of anything created or non-eternal. No married gods, no wives or
consorts (contra Q. 6:101). Three co-equal and co-eternal Persons
sharing fully the one, indivisible being of God. While the Qur'an
attempts to identify this as shirk, the author of the Qur'an clearly did
not understand the doctrine he was seeking to deny.
It doesn't seem like the surprises in 2011 are anywhere near over yet. I realize that some people might say that Christopher Hitchens death should come as a surprise to anyone. It was very public how sick he was. Given that everyone is going to die doesn't make the death of anyone easy. I was hoping that maybe God would spare his life and heal him but even better if God turned Christopher Hitchens into an evangelist for God instead of against God. None of us knows what Hitchens spiritual state was when he died and trying to guess what it is pointless. Instead I'd rather just think about the fact that his wit and intelligence and eloquence will be missed despite the fact that I didn't agree with everything he said or wrote. One non debatable fact is that he knows for sure whether he was right or wrong. Is there and afterlife or is there not? I think finding out for sure after you die is the wrong way to find out. Instead, it's better to know by knowing God for yourself. There are several great websites that are covering this. Here are a few links that I think you should see if you don't see any of the others.
Douglas Wilson wrote an article reflecting on Christopher Hitchens (link). I think that this particular article is priceless because although the two debated a few times and did not agree on a few fundamental things about life they had a mutual respect and admiration for each other.
A few weeks before Christopher Hitchens was supposed to debate Dr. James White, the debate was cancels because of Hitchens diagnosis and his need to start treatment immediately. The debate never happened. But on his blog posted a video and his web cast from 12/16/2011 in which he discusses Hitchen's death and a wide variety of subjects. Get the link here.
So how should Christians respond to the death of Christopher Hitchens? I think a good example is the one set by his brother Peter. Peter Hitchens is a Christian and he wrote an article about seeing his brother for the last time and how much he meant to him and who Christopher was as a person. It's beautifully written and I can't recommend it enough. Read it here.
Christian Bale was in China this last week to work on a new international film promoted and supported by the Government. While there he went with a CNN crew to attempt to visit a man.
CNN has the whole harrowing tale, which began when The Dark Knight Rises star Bale filmed The Flowers of War in China. While on-set, he heard stories of the blind activistChen Guangcheng, a lawyer who started helping “victims of abusive practices by Chinese family-planning officials” in the late 1990s. Bale was so impressed with this man that he wanted to go visit him.
Bale and the crew was turned away and met with hostility and violence. Bale was punched. But anyone who tries to see Guangcheng or speak out in his favor gets turned away or detained. What did he do?
Chen, a self-taught lawyer who was blinded by a fever in infancy, angered authorities after documenting forced late-term abortions and sterilizations and other abuses by overzealous authorities trying to meet population control goals in his rural community. He was imprisoned for allegedly instigating an attack on government offices and organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic, charges his supporters say were fabricated.
Although now officially free under the law, he has been confined to his home in the village eight hours' drive from Beijing and subjected to periodic beatings and other abuse, activists say.
Wow. I mean...just...wow. And we think we have it soooo hard in America. Here is the CNN video with Christian Bale attempting to see Chen Guangcheng.
I just found out on Friday that Joe Simon died. He was a very talented and imaginitive writer and artist who created and co-created many many characters - such as Captain America! He is going to be missed - but what a legacy he leaves behind.
Mariano Grinbank has written an awesome article regarding the trope some atheists seem to think is a good argument against Christianity. The thought is that they think Christians believe that all Hitler had to do before he died was to say "I'm sorry" and despite all the evil he has done he would go to heaven. As Mariano points out:
This question is used as a spring board whereby to condemn YHVH, the Bible and Christianity due to a perceived injustice. The rub comes in the form of the conclusion that according to Christian theology if Adolf Hitler, the Jew hating mass murdering racist maniac, would have repented then today he would be enjoying the glories of heaven whilst innocent Jewish children whom he murdered would be suffering the torments of hell.
In this article, Mariano shows just how silly and ill-formed this argument is. Use the following link to find this brilliant piece that Mariano has written.
Use the following link to get a better look at the pictures and read why they were matched that way. It's hilarious and spot on.. Unfortunately Twitter is missing. I'd match Twitter to Hawkgirl.
