My family and I enjoy watching science fiction on TV. Recently we have been working through the Stargate series on DVD. The two episodes we watched tonight were classic sci-fi plots:

1. Strange alien life form looks like something inert (in this case water), is inadvertently “captured” and wrecks havoc trying to return home.
2. Main character(s) get caught in a “time loop” in which they keep repeating the past few hours over and over again. They must convince their comrades that this is happening and figure out how to get out of the loop.

This caused me to reflect on other classic sci-fi plots:

3. Alien “energy” life form takes over the bodies of the crew members and nearly destroys everyone, but it turns out to be only a lack of communication.
4. Discovery of a very advanced race that has outgrown their need for bodies and now lives as pure minds that control the external world through their technology.
5. A primitive civilization that lives in a world controlled by technology left behind by an advanced race. However, they are not free to grow and learn, so of course the advanced technology must be destroyed.
6. The malfunction of some device sends the team into the past. They just happen to end up at a crucial time in history in which one wrong move could destroy the future (=their present) as they know it.
7. Team members return from a mission, only it turns out that it is really some aliens/clones trying to infiltrate the home base.
8. An exploration team discovers a paradise world that seems to be too good to be true, which of course it is. Gradually they discover the sinister side of this “paradise.”
9. Team members are on a mission, but eventually discover that the whole thing is being projected into their brains by some alien technology. Their bodies are actually strapped to tables in a lab somewhere.

I have seen all these plots turn up numerous times in various shows. So now you know. If you want to write your own sci-fi series all you have to do is fill in the details.

Tomorrow I am teaching on God’s Sovereignty and Human Freedom in the High School Sunday School class. This post is mainly to provide some links to further information on Calvinism and Arminianism.

Background on John Calvin

Background on James Arminius

The Five Articles of the Remonstrants (1610)

The Five Points of Calvinism

A good general article on the question of human free will

This is a summary of message #2 of a sermon series on worship. To listen to the entire message click here.

What does it really mean to worship God? What is the essence of worship? Take a look at one of the passages in the Bible that gives us a glimpse into heaven:

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’” (Rev. 7:9-12)

Whenever the Bible describes the activity in heaven we usually find worship at the center. And often the worship includes “bowing down” (see Rev. 4:11; Rev. 5:14; Rev. 11:16). In fact, in Revelation nearly every time that the twenty four elders are mentioned we find them bowing down before the throne. (Other examples of bowing before God are found in Num. 20:6; Neh. 8:6; Mat. 2:11 and Luke 5:6-8)

What does bowing have to do with worship?

The primary Hebrew word in the OT translated “worship” literally means to “bow down.” The original Greek word in the NT has a similar meaning. Obviously there is a close connection between worship and “bowing down.” But what is the connection?

People in the ancient world understood the significance of bowing down before someone. Bowing was the nearly universal sign of respect and submission in the presence of a king or other powerful leader. We find examples of bowing before a human leader in the Bible as well (Gen. 41:42-43; 2 Sam. 14:22). No wonder bowing down before God became a primary expression of worship.

To bow down before someone indicates two things. First it is a sign of honor and respect. It is recognition of the greatness of the one before whom you bow. Second, it is a sign of submission. By bowing before a king you are saying that he is greater than you are (you are the one bowing) and that your life is in his hands and under his power (you can’t defend yourself with your face to the ground).

Why we must bow

In worship we declare God’s greatness. He alone is worthy of glory, honor, and praise. One day all created beings will bow before Him and acknowledge that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Phil. 2:9-10). In response to this truth we bow in surrender to and adoration of our King. Our bowing may not always be physical (although it can be), but in our hearts we must bow before Him who is on the throne. Without this there is no true worship. If we do not bow, we are merely reciting words that we do not really mean. Our worship is hollow and hypocritical.

Bowing down in worship is not optional because there is only room for one on the throne. God will not share His glory. The first of the Ten Commandments demands exclusive allegiance (Ex. 20:2-3). If we declare that He alone is worthy then we must bow. There is no other way.

The problem is that we find it very difficult to truly bow before the throne. There is something in us (it’s called “sin”) that would rather we be the one on the throne. Submitting ourselves to the will of another just doesn’t come naturally. We like to be self-sufficient, in control, and free to do what we want, but God calls us to be dependent on Him, under His control, and ready to do whatever He calls us to do.

In order to bow before the Lord we must deal with the question of who sits on the throne. We must confess our attempts to be our own little god, and surrender the throne to the One who alone is worthy.

We each have a choice to make. In the words of the song “Will You Worship”

Will you worship, will you bow down
Before your Lord and King?
Will you love Me, will you give Me your heart,
Your everything?

What is the place of emotions in worship? Should worship be an emotional experience? Can we trust our emotions?

Questions such as these have caused considerable debate. The worship styles at different churches run the gamut from somber, highly structured liturgical services to the wild frenzy of some Pentecostal services to the carefully choreographed “worship experience” of some seeker driven churches. Some worship services leave you exhausted from the sheer overflow of emotion while others barely register a pulse. Is it just a matter of personal preference, or does the Bible provide some guidance as to the proper place of emotions in worship? What sort of worship service is pleasing to God?

Read the rest»»

I have been working on a better theme for my site. Yesterday I finally made enough progress that I am able to start using the new theme. I have never been that good at doing graphics, so that was the biggest challenge.

*** Begin Geek Section ***

For those interested in the technical details, I wanted the water background in the banner to resize to the screen width at any resolution but I did not want the title and subtitle to resize because it would look distorted. So I needed to learn how to use DIV to overlay the images. I couldn’t find a way to make the background transparent on a .jpg, and a .gif wouldn’t do because the words were not sharp enough. I also wanted the reflected portion of the title to be partially transparent so that the water would show through, which didn’t work with a .gif. Finally I found out how to use a .png graphics file and make the background on the graphic transparent. But this does not render correctly with IE, so I had to find a work around for that. That’s why you see a brief flash of grey around the graphics for the title and subtitle when you view the site with IE.

*** End Geek Section ***

There are still changes that I want to make, especially to how the side bars work. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement. (Those of you reading this as a cross-posted message on my xanga will need to come to my real site to see the new look.)

I want to provide a few links to help people using MS Word for academic writing to learn how to take advantage of the tools that the program offers. In addition to the basics, there are a few more “advanced” features that you really should learn how to use in order to use Word to write a dissertation or thesis. (If you need help with the basics, there is a good collection of tutorials here.)

1. Styles

I would never attempt to write anything more than a few pages long in Word without using Styles. You can apply formatting commands directly to your text, but for a document of any length that is not the way to do it. I use Styles for nearly everything that I write in Word beyond the simplest one page letter. Once you understand the power of styles you will use them as well.

Here is a tutorial on Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word
Styles are stored in Templates. For more detail on creating Templates go here.

2. Outlining

Outlining allows you to create multi-level outlines in your document. The Outline View shows you just the outline with as much detail as you choose. It is easy to move around whole sections or to promote/demote sections to a different outline level.

To use outlining you need to apply the built-in styles Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on to the different outline levels. Once you have done this you can also have Word generate a Table of Contents for your document.

Here is a simple introduction to outlining.
Here are more detailed instructions on using outlining in Word.
More detailed instructions on creating a Table of Contents.

3. Taming Word

Sometimes MS Word tries to do too much for you. Some of the automatic formatting options can drive you crazy when they do things that you do not want them to. Here are some tips to tame Word.

• One essential tip is to make sure that you go to Tools:Templates and AddIns and make sure that Automatically update document styles” is unchecked. This will save you endless headaches and confusion.
• If you have problems with the way that Word is automatically applying formatting as you type You should also go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options, and find the “Autoformat as you type” and “Autoformat” tabs. De-select any of the options that might be causing you trouble.
• When you are using styles, set up your own style sheet instead of putting everything in the default style sheet called normal.dot. The default style sheet is attached to every document you create, and any changes there will affect all your documents. Instead, create a new style sheet with a name like thesis.dot.
• If you have problems with styles or formatting, select the troublesome text and hit shift-F1. This will show you all the styles and formatting that are applied to the selected text.

This is not a tutorial on using MS Word. I have only shared a few key tips and given you links to some reasonably useful tutorials. I hope that this is helpful to you. I may update this post from time to time as I come across more information that seems helpful.

In this ABC News article Most Say God Was Not Factor in Hurricanes I was relieved to see that most Americans do not blame God for the recent hurricanes. Interestingly, the highest percentage of people who do say that God was the cause is among Evangelical Protestants. But in the fine print at the bottom of the article it says that only 8% of those who believe that God was the cause thought that it was an act of punishment.

It’s true that in the Bible God sometimes uses natural disasters as a punishment, but we have to be very careful assuming that we know the reason behind a specific natural disaster. In a general way all natural disasters can be seen as a result of the Fall, but they are not necessarily punishment for the sins of the people living in a specific area. In natural disasters Christians as well as atheists die, and it is always possible to find another region that seems to be even more sinful than the area where the disaster occurs.

Perhaps the high figure for Evangelical Protestants simply reflects their belief in the sovereignty of God. But I do not believe that biblical sovereignty requires us to see God as the direct cause of everything that occurs. So it depends on how you ask the question. If someone asked whether or not God caused the hurricanes I would say “no.” But if they asked if God had allowed them I would say “yes.” God is “in control” in the sense that nothing happens without His permission (see Job chapter 1), but that does not mean that He “causes” everything.