Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bart Ehrman vs Craig Evans at Acadia University

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Another great debate is coming up.  Dr. Ehrman, a former evangelical turned agnostic, is going head-to-head again with Dr. Craig Evans. This time at Acadia University and St. Mary’s University, in in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Ehrman and Evans are going to debate each other again for two days. They might be sick of each other at the end, or maybe, one might convert the other?…Not.  This should be interesting because they understand each other’s theology and points of view well.  Theological spars like this are interesting because when both hold strongly to their own convictions.  One might wonder why either do not come to the same conclusions.

Anyway, this will be very interesting. I wish I could be there myself, but unfortunately it’s way over in Atlantic Canada.  If you in Nova Scotia, check it out. [Tickets seem to be all gone now.  Maybe they'll make the DVD or recording available online].  But there’s an “After the Debate will be held at Rock Church the next day, Saturday, Jan. 21 9:00-3:30PM.

Friday, January 20 at 7PM at Acadia University, and
Thursday, January 19 at 7PM at Mary’s University
Admission is FREE [SOLD OUT]
Acadia University and St. Mary’s University
www.Religionsoup.ca

Sponsored by The Navigators

Justin Bieber’s mom’s testimony of salvation

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I just finished watching the Justin Bieber movie and wanted to find out more about his family’s life.  I was surprised to learn of his mother’s Pattie Mallette’s testimony of how she received Jesus Christ into her life as a young rebellious teenager.  She raised Justin Bieber as a single mom which was very difficult.  This was Justin Bieber before he was “Justin Bieber” the 15 year-old music sensation, and before his first recording contract. There are four parts to the interview : Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (with Justin)

I hope that Justin and mom Pattie will remain true in their faith and in their relationship with the Lord. Below is a clip from 100 Huntley Street.

Conservatives re-elected to govern with a majority government in Canada

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Congratulations to Canada’s Prime Minister re-elect, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, who has been entrusted to govern with a majority of seats in the House of Commons.  This is a big victory and a big change because it shifts the governing Conservatives from a minority government to a majority government.  They haven’t had a majority government for a couple decades.  Here are the final results from Elections Canada.

  1. Conservatives  167
  2. NDP   102
  3. Liberals   34
  4. Bloc Quebecois  4
  5. Green  1

A couple of other big changes happened in this election: 1) the Liberals lost big time and were decimated; and 2) the separistists Bloc Quebecois were wiped out in Quebec (which is good for federalism and a united Canada). People wanted to give a majority government to Harper’s Conservatives.  I think they’ve done a great job in government and deserve to be given “a strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government”, which is what he asked Canadians for. Way to go! P.M. Stephen Harper was a class act tonight because he honored his opponents and reached out to all Canadians in his Prime Ministerial victory speech (watch here).

The left-leaning NDP was one of the surprises of the night because this is the best showing ever in its party’s history.  My take is that the people in Quebec have rejected separatism and have chosen the NDP because they didn’t like the leadership of the Ignatieff Liberals.  Quebec’s swing away from the B.Q. toward the NDP is a protest vote.

Here’s a link to CTV‘s coverage of the election.

Happy belated Easter!

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Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Hallelujah!

Easter has just come and gone. Thank God that Easter is not as commercialized as Christmas.  It’s no wonder I try to avoid the malls at Christmastime. Easter is still the last remaining Christian holiday that has not been overtaken by crass commercialism. Perhaps business marketing strategies have not yet thought up some ingenius ways to make a ton of money out of Easter? (btw, I have nothing against business. God bless our businesses).

Life: Now that Easter has just passed, I wish things in my life could just slow down a little;however, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down much. I haven’t done much serious blogging in a long time but I hate making excuses. If it’s not work, then it’s my class work in seminary that’s taking up much of my time away from blogging and keeping up with what’s going on in the biblical/theological world in the blogosphere.


A Christian education website

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Many public schools no longer teach Christian education. It’s good to see a website like this: Request (based in the U.K.) designed to teach basic Christianity in the education system.

Depending on the school system, Christianity is rarely taught or not taught at all.  Personally, I’ve lost hope in the secularized public education system in Canada.  I would rather send my children to a public Catholic school where the Christian faith is still taught. Not every Christian family can afford to send their children to a private Christian school.

Why the emerging church movement died

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Is the emerging church movement dead?

When the emerging church (EC) movement first caught my attention during seminary, I was impressed with a certain open-mindedness about it. As I learned more about it and about some of the people in this movement, I learned that were not as open-minded as I had initially thought.  Some sectors of the EC had moved away from the core doctrines of the faith that I held as being essential to the faith; otherwise, Christianity would no longer be Christianity.  The EC projected itself as a movement that was in constant rebellion against traditional Christianity. Almost everything the EC movement said was against the status quo and it identified itself as a new brand of Christianity that was “not like the others”. Although I do not consider myself traditional, I do not dislike tradition because it offers countless benefits for all Christians. My view of the EC movement eventually turned from positive to negative in a short period of time. Since then, I have never paid much further attention to the emerging church movement.

However, to the emerging church movement, I give credit for two main things I admired about it:

  1. For seeing traditional Christianity from a critical perspective.  Much of traditional Christianity fails to see itself from an outsider’s point-of-view.
  2. For being open to making some positive changes to traditional Christianity.

HT: Out of Ur blog has a positive eulogy on the dead emerging church movement.