Friday, March 24, 2023

In the interest of strangeness

Brian (Sauve) and Ben investigate some of the more tantalizing wonders and mysteries of the deep places of earth, the watery vaults where nameless things make their home.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Artificial Intelligence & Ouija Boards

Funnily enough, I've been thinking about the correlation between AI and Ouija. Alcasan's Head in That Hideous Strength also comes to mind. 

Lewis Ungit asks some intriguing questions:

A group of my friends sat in the dark candle-lit room with their fingers on the Ouija Board planchette. The creepy attic setting heightened the tingle of fear I think we all shared as they tried to conjure a spirit. Disturbing answers followed. Was there a spirit in the room? The board said, yes. Was it a good spirit or a bad spirit? The spirit said bad. After a few more questions like that, one of the girls got freaked out, turned on the lights, and the experience was over. Later, we debated if one of the kids was intentionally guiding the planchette or not. The materialist in me concluded that it had to be the case. But today, I wonder. It is certainly possible that it was one of the kids guiding it. But I am also much more open to the idea that other entities interact with our world. And I am much more disturbed by the idea of a group of kids in a candle lit attic trying to contact them...continue reading

Addendum: For more related topics see the interview Lewis Ungit - Psychedelics and the Bible

Also his blog.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Revelation Chapter Six

E. W. Bullinger held that the opening of the sixth seal is a summary, not chronological. He said the seal carries through to the end. You can read his Commentary on Revelation HERE

Darrel Cline seems to agree. In The Rapture is When? he writes,

The difference between Jesus' words in Matthew 24 and Jesus' revelation of the sixth seal is that the event described in Matthew 24 is a presentation of the coming of Jesus from heaven to earth to gather the nation of Israel to her promised land (Deuteronomy 30:4) from one end of heaven to the other, while the revelation of the sixth seal is a large overview of the entire scenario of Daniel's seventieth week by use of the concept of "inclusio". This concept is one in which a writer takes a "front-end issue" and links it to a "back-end issue" so that it represents the entire unit.

For a few years I've been leaning heavily that way too. In any case, I thought the Commentary on Revelation Chapter Six by Precept Austin was pretty neat, although it maintains the traditional view. Find it HERE

PS Related Passages and Themes

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

The Olive Tree Metaphor

Another great article by Dr. Reluctant.

Some passages of Scripture have suffered under the myosis of its interpreters more than most. At the forefront of these abused passages is surely Romans 11:16-29. For sure, there is a bit of deciphering of Paul’s language to do, but all in all I think the apostle’s thrust is easy to grasp. The problem with so many interpretations of the verses, especially by those who like to employ the NT to interpret the OT, is that they tend to read their theology into the passage while ignoring the details...continue reading

Monday, March 6, 2023

Vern Poythress: Spiritual Warfare

For various reasons I won't go into here, I found the following three presentations by Dr. Poythress surprisingly helpful.

Part One) Great Texts About Preaching

Part Two) Spiritual Warfare

Part Three) Spiritual Warfare

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

About “Deep in History”

What does “Deep in History” Really Mean? An interesting article by Matt Ferris.  

Excerpt:

Many have said that reading the early church fathers will “make you a Catholic” or something similar. But, reading Thomas Torrance’s assessment of the fathers actually strengthened my commitment to the Scriptures alone as the only ground of authority. Torrance’s book (his doctoral dissertation) The Doctrine of Grace in the Apostolic Fathers is a survey of several sub-apostolic writings for how they deal with the concept of grace vis-à-vis the New Testament..continue reading