Sinners

The great evangelist George Whitefield once received a letter in which he was brutally criticized by a peer. He was called everything but a preacher. Whitefield, with impeccable clarity, penned the best response to criticism I've ever encountered. He wrote his assassin a brief reply: "Thank you sir for your criticism. If you knew about me what I know about me, you would have written a longer letter." Genius. Whitefield got it. _We all deserve longer letters._ If we can ever get here in our hearts, the world will open up to us. The gospel says, "Get here soon." - from "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" by Byron Forrest Yawn

We are all sinners.  Let us recognise this and turn to the Lord for Salvation.

Are Vaccinations Ethical?

I talked with the chaplain last week about a number of things, including vaccinations and I wanted to share what I have learned in some of my research. There are certain types of them that I believe are unethical and I will not take them. I realize that a topic like vaccinations could get rather heated. This is a matter of conscience - good Christian people could disagree about the ethical concerns of using this type of vaccination. I think it may be possible for Christian people to both use them with a good conscience, but the information should still be put out there for people to make their own decisions.

In a number of vaccines human cell lines are used (usually as the culture to grow the virus in). Both of the lines used are originated from murdered unborn babies.

On the CDC website itself are the following two documents:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-1.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf

These are both directly on the CDC website and can be found by searching for "excipient" on their website.

The second document looks like it was actually composed in 2012. It lists recent vaccines that were made with MRC-5 and WI-38 human diploid tissue. A mere google search will turn up the following about these tissue lines:

"MRC-5 (Lung, diploid, human)

"Derived from normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus by J. P. Jacobs in September 1966 (Nature 227: 168-170, 1970), the MRC-5 cell line was established in a growth medium consisting of Earle's Basal Medium in Earle's balanced salt solution supplemented with 10% calf serum. Following initial cultivation, subcultures were prepared twice weekly at a 1:2 ratio. When the cells reached approximately the 7th population doubling, the majority of the cultures were harvested to prepare a frozen cell stock. Subsequent observations revealed that the MRC-5 cells are capable of attaining 42-46 population doublings before onset of the decline in proliferation usually experienced with human fibroblast lines. The MRC-5 cell strain (like the WI-38 cell line) is susceptible to a wide range of human viruses." (http://www.viromed.com/services/product/mrc5.htm)

"WI-38
(Lung, diploid, human)

"The WI-38 human diploid cell line was derived by L. Hayflick from normal embryonic (3-month gestation) lung tissue of a female (Exp. Cell Res. 25: 585, 1961). The growth medium used was Eagle's medium in Earle's balanced salt solution supplemented with 10% calf serum. The cells have a finite lifetime of 50 (plus or minus 10) population doublings with a doubling time of 24 hours (Exp. Cell Res. 37: 614, 1965). The cell line has been shown to have one of the broadest human virus spectra of any cell population that has been tested and is especially useful for isolation of rhinoviruses." (http://www.viromed.com/services/product/wi38.htm)

Notice they have their own citation for where this cell line originates. I have no way to check theirs, but the information can found on other pages, and is not from a page that is in anyway biased against the use of such cells. (Not that bias is bad.)

What keeps you from leading well?

I am reading "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" by Byron Forrest Yawn. He says:

"Here's the deal. In order to be freed from the fear of man and be comfortable in your own skin you have to answer ["What's your greatest weakness?"] honestly for yourself. I don't mean surface answers either. I mean the "thing beneath the thing" type answer. I have an anger problem goes to I'm selfish and when people don't do exactly what I say I destroy them with words. I'm not very patient, goes to I'm blindly arrogant and consider anyone who makes a mistake incompetent. I don't like to open up and talk, goes to I'm so immature and delinquent I'm embarrassed someone will see it. I haven't found the career I want, goes to I'm too afraid to try anything that requires strength of character. If you get it out there and deal with it, you'll know how your grandfather felt at seventy.
"By the time a man reaches premarital counseling, he should know these things. There should exist an inventory. He should be able to tell his bride and counselor exactly what it is about him that will make following him a challenge. ..."

Here is a challenge to my friends, especially those in a relationship who are not yet married:
First, make a list of the things that will make it difficult for your future bride to follow you, and a list of what you are doing to fix them.
Second, ask your significant other to make a list of the things that she sees.
Third, compare and discuss your lists, (yes, it may hurt, but suck it up) and pray together that God would help you overcome those things, by His grace.

If you are following Jesus as your Lord, thank Him that His death covers all your failures and gives you the strength you need to continue the fight. With confidence continue the fight, striving for holiness!

"Many people have asked me, 'How can you tell whether you've got a friendship on which you can base a marriage?' The answer that Kathy and I have always given is this. When you see the problems in each other, do you just ant to run away, or do you find a desire to work on them together? If the second impulse is yours, they you have the makings of a marriage. Do you obsess over your partner's external shortcomings, or can you see the beauty within, and do you want to see it increasingly revealed? Then move forward. The power of truth that marriage has should hold no fear for you." - Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, p. 144

Chosen but Free by Norman Geisler

Norman Geisler's “Chosen but Free” attempts to show a middle answer to the question of “How can God be Sovereign AND man still be responsible for his actions?” especially as it relates to salvation. An outline of the book looks like this (mostly from contents): (parenthesis are mine)

I.Who is in Charge? (Sovereignty of God)
II.Why blame me? (Man's free will)
III. Viewing the Alternatives
IV. Avoiding Extreme Calvinism (read historic Calvinism)
A.Definition of Extreme Calvinism (brief)
B.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Total Depravity
C.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Unconditional Election
V.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism (cont.)
A.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Limited Atonement
B.Extreme Calvinism's God is not really All-Loving
C.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Irresistible Grace
VI. Avoiding Extreme Arminianism
VII. A Plea for Moderation
VIII. What Difference does it Make?

This was altogether a poor book.
Geisler does not seem to really understand historic Calvinism, he often uses straw men or misrepresents his opponents, and he does not adequately deal with the biblical texts on his subject.

Read The Potter's Freedom by James R. White for a detailed analysis of this work.

America and Katrina

Note: Due to the fact that I am not a professional nor am I perfect the following my be erroneous or deficient in some areas. I will gladly welcome any comments.
Recently I went to Louisiana and visited some of the areas that Katrina damaged and destroyed. I was able to visit New Orleans, Slidell (North of New Orleans) and Lakeshore, Mississippi and I was able to talk to people down there doing volunteer relief work. Though the time I was down there was short and I did only a small amount of work, I was able to learn about the character of America.
I learned first of all that Katrina really was a big deal, and still is a big deal. There are still miles of streets without houses on them. There are and unimaginable number of properties where nothing has been done to rebuild the houses that were just removed by Katrina. There are an equally unimaginable number of houses that have to be gutted and repaired. For people to say that Katrina is not still news worthy is to ignore reality, however I can understand some incense at the mishandling of the topic by the media.
I saw the culture and some of what would make a person want to live down there. Shrimp is actually cheaper per pound then chicken in some places down there. Family and friends seem to be closer down there. In New Orleans itself the architecture is very unique. People there are more deeply rooted. All of the above are reasons why many people still want to live there.
Unfortunately I also learned that Americans every where are governmentally dependant – they seem to rely on the government (especially the federal government to get them out of any tight spot. Hurricane Katrina was going to be big – that is what every one was told – they were told to evacuate. Not everyone did. There are two possible reasons for that. Either they were able to go and just did not go, or they were unable to go; either they did not ask for help or it was not given.
It is the local and state government’s job to 1) Evacuate for an emergency. 2) Make sure that local and state emergency workers are prepared. 3) Start the relief effort and maintain it for the first three to four days. None of these was done adequately by states and local governments. Those people who were running the relief effort also failed to allow volunteers to help out, they were turned away when is some cases they were adequately prepared for doing work. NOPD was unable to respond adequately not because the officers went AWOL but because the officers were not supplied to handle the job, thus many of them went AWOL.
For the recovery stage I learned that too many people did not have and good way to recover- FEMA, being a federal agency, is full of bureaucracy and a general waste of taxes and therefore unable to do an adequate job of recovery. It seemed that a community effort to recover should have been present; instead of relying on federal government and volunteer groups from outside that area. The affected communities (families, friends, and neighbors, not government) should have worked together to recover quickly, with outside volunteers as support or backup. It may be that I just missed that part of the recovery effort or that there was no community left, but I think there should have been a greater community left, but I think there should have been a greater community effort than what I saw.
I think that most of the problems that were revealed by Katrina were ultimately from laziness. I realize that I am part of the problem and I am going to work to change that.

Virtues of Fiction

Sorry for the long wait from the last post; I plan to post at least once a week for the rest of the year. I will be reviewing books that I read to fill in when I don't have anything to say or when I have not yet articulated what I want to say. Most of the time I read fiction books (of varying types). I wish now to show a few reasons why it can be beneficial to read fiction.
Fiction stimulates the imagination while reading a narrative one uses the imagination automatically to “see” what happens in the story. Imagination is “the act or power of forming mental images of what is not actually present.”1 Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” 2 Necessity may be the mother of invention but imagination is the father, for without imagination the inventor cannot think of a new way to solve the problem.
Reading fiction can stimulate your intellect; anyone reading critically can exercise their mind. One can study ethical problems though fiction. (as in “What would the right thing to do be in this character's position?”) Philosophy and Theology are also easily studied (as in “Do I agree with the thoughts of this character or the ideas of the author?) Other general facts that are found in fiction books can be researched to find out if they are true.
Educators and philosophers (thinkers) use fiction to illustrate their ideas. Jesus Christ in particular used some well known stories called parables to illustrate with: The Parable of the Good Samaritan to show an Israelite that everyone is your neighbor, and the parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates the Love of God toward sinners are two examples of parables well know because their titles are now common English phrases.
Many works of fiction have significantly altered peoples views of practices, problems, of injustices. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book that changed many opinions and helped the end slavery in the US. A book that I read recently that caused some serious thoughts when I read it was The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. I will admit that I ought to be reading more thought provoking books, especially of the nonfiction variety, than I am.

The Shepherd of the Hills

SBN: 50000 (Fiction)
Title: Shepherd of the Hills
Author: Harold Bell Wright
Publisher: A. L. Burt Co.
Quality: 8
Difficulty: 6
Worldview: 7 (Deistic – Evangelical)
Summary:
A stranger from the city comes to the Ozarks. Daniel Howitt (for that is his name) decides to live there and teaches that to be a noble person it is not necessary to live in the city. Rather, being noble has to do with one's character and the way one uses one's self. I could say more but that would give away the story.

Government by Supreme Principle

Many men have been praising Democracy and elections to day as if that is good in the world. However some more recent events show that that is not a true statement. Democracy, that it is the form of government whereby the governed popularly elect their leaders, has failed and will continue to fail, to give all men freedom, justice and order, these are the three Supreme Principles of good government. Please do not mistake me, I do not mean for any of the three to be overweighted, though they must stay in that order, but rather that they must be in harmony with each other.
The Principle of Freedom is that each person must get what is most his due without taking from his fellow citizen. Lady Liberty has a torch and smile to show to each his right to life, to liberty, to own property, to worship as he pleases, to speak as he chooses.
The Principle of Justice is that to each man who takes the rights of another without just cause it must be repaid to him the same in proportion of the proof of the crime. Lady Justice weighs out the penalty with the crime and caries the sword to exact the price.
The Principle of Order is that the government is ruled by law, the for the purpose of preserving the higher rights of the people, the government may make rules which take away some of the lower rights and in emergency some of the higher rights may be temporally suspended in order to preserve those higher than the ones suspended. Lady Wisdom calls in the streets to “give understanding to the simple” and preserve the liberty and the justice provided by her sisters.
A perfect government may come in any form but it is always the one in which those three sisters work and sing in perfect harmony and no person in that government's domain is neglected.
I know no government in this life will be perfect so each must be judged on how close it comes to having those Principles, and though they work in harmony Freedom is the eldest and Order the youngest and that is their order of importance. Each government must also be judged on how rapidly it draws near to or leads away from those principles.

Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder

SBN(Simple Book Number):30000 (History)
Title: Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder
Author: Rutherford Platt
Publisher: City, Year: Dodd, Mead & Company: New York, 1961
Quality (How Factual, Useful, etc. is the book)(0-10): 5
Vocabulary or Difficulty(0-10): 3 (4th grade)
Worldview(0-10): 4 (Atheistic)

Summary: This is a book about America being discovered; about the wilderness in its prime before any European stepped foot in it and settled it.

Cautions: It presents Evolution and sister theories as fact. One pen drawing of Sacajawea nude from the waist up.