When I posted episode #130 I mentioned that the national attention The Coming Evangelical Collapse received was a catalyst in Michael’s decision to publish a book. In this podcast episode he will talk about choosing a publishing agent. He also responds to the Top 10 Questions about that three part series of evangelical collapse posts once they were suddenly noticed by more people.
Good news pollen sufferers: The pollen season is actually winding down. The current count is in the hundreds each day and not up in the several thousands so we are past the peak of it. The pollen levels will continue to slowly taper off over the next week or two.
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We are able to save ourselves. That’s what Senator Warnock of Georgia posted on Easter morning to Facebook and Twitter. Even after those posts were deleted – no clarification, no retraction, just disappearing posts – I continued to see screenshots of both for several days as people reacted online. During his campaign, Warnock reminded us many times that he served as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, filling the pulpit of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He may be strong on civil rights but somewhat heretical on theology.
Continue readingLet me begin by apologizing for not posting last week. I never realized; my wife mentioned it on Saturday.
Episode #130 is quintessential Michael Spencer. In this episode he talks about the sudden rise in popularity of the Coming Evangelical Collapse posts. The national level of attention of that series of posts received is in large part responsible for the book deal that later followed. The second half of the episode shifts to evangelicalism in the modern American culture. He uses a borrowed term to note the effect Rush Limbaugh had over the course of two decades to define and direct Christian conservatives.
In the early hours of the morning,
after the Sabbath had ended,
a few women walked toward his grave
to finish matters left unattended.
They carried spices for anointing,
to honor custom and tradition.
For he had been quickly laid in the grave
on the day of Preparation.
Today is Holy Saturday also known as Black Saturday. The Sabbath was a day of rest, a legal and moral obligation for the Jews. Some Christians believe Jesus was other places doing other things during that period of time; I will not get into whether or not he literally descended into hell and preached to the condemned. Tomorrow is Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday to many although not everyone agrees on that title. If you are in the Calhoun, GA area the Gordon County Christian Ministerial Alliance is having a Sunrise Service at BB&T Park in downtown that begins at 7 AM. We will have prayer, two or three songs everybody knows and a 15 or 20 minute sermon. At 36 degrees I will remind our speaker the shorter the better. Hopefully 2020 taught us not to take so many things for granted, including worshiping together and visiting family.
Continue readingI recently saw a question online asking if Christians really believe Jesus came back from the dead. It was obvious that the question comes from the point of view that people don’t do that; come back to life that is. Jesus was a man, he died, and it seems unreasonable to think that he came back to life three days later. Maybe he was a wise teacher with many followers, maybe it is not crazy that we study his sermons and emulate his behavior but do we really believe he rose from the dead and appeared again alive to his disciples and others? Fasten your seatbelts.
There have been a lot more basketball games on t.v. this week than usual. #NotGonnaGoogleThis. Welcome to the Satur-deja Vu. You may or may not have seen these headlines this week:
Pepsi + Peeps = Peepsi? Peeps get more hate at Easter than candy corn does at Halloween but that’s not stopping Pepsi from introducing a Peeps flavored variety. While the cans come in three different colors, just like Peeps themselves, the flavor is the same. And from what I’ve heard tastes exactly like the marshmallow Peeps. I will have to take their word for it. Your reviews are welcome in the comments.
Continue readingMichael talks about spring break and how beautiful the weather is which coincides nicely with what we’re seeing right now (minus the thunderstorms and tornado warnings).
Today’s topics: What did the early Christians not have that we feel we have to have to be Christian?
Finding lost things.
If you only come here for Internet Monk Radio do you know about the Internet Monk Archives? I missed the announcement back in January and only recently discovered the new archival site featuring over 7,000 posts from 20 years of Internet Monk. Click here to check it out.
Cancel culture is
nothing new
The term cancel culture may be new to our vocabulary but the idea of silencing voices of those we do not want to hear is ancient. Jeremiah lived around 600 B.C. and was once thrown in a nearly dry well. There was no water but he sank into thick mud and could not free himself. On another occasion he wrote a letter of warning to King Jehoiakim who cut the scroll with a knife, a few lines at a time as it was read, and threw God’s word into the fire. Many of the Old Testament prophets were ignored, mocked, exiled or killed.
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The Master's Table 