The Mars Hill Club

Here is Paul's introduction for our discussion this Thursday evening (Nov. 30). See the following blog post or our Calendar for the meeting details.

I will never forget the surprise on the face of my friend when he discovered through a small-group experience that he was prejudiced against the black race. “How could this have happened to me?” he asked. “Selective sampling,” I replied. He understood what I was getting at. We human beings see what we want to see and overlook that which we do not. We have a strong desire to categorize, exclude and simplify. Some of this is over-efficiency in managing the computer of the mind; but a large part of this “selective sampling” is rooted in sin, i.e. rejection of biblical teaching, rebellion against God’s boundaries, disobedience of God’s direction or perversion of God’s design.

Join us this Thursday evening, November 30, for a stimulating discussion concerning worldviews -- with a capable presentation & defense of the Christian worldview -- by moderator Paul Ethington. Paul's engaging overview of this topic is contained in the blog immediately above this one.

Everyone has a worldview -- or a way of looking at the world & making sense of it. When we are willing to examine, understand, & evaluate our worldviews, we are truly open-minded. Being open-minded does not mean that we believe anything & everthing without reason, but that we are willing to critically examine a variety of claims & follow the claims that seem to make the most sense, best explain our experiences & thoughts, & describe the world that is with the least amount of contradiction, mystery, & confusion.

Here are some fascinating web sites that will help prepare you for our real or virtual discussion on keys to understanding biblical prophecy. The links are provided for information & study, but I don't presume to endorse any or all of the material presented therein. Enjoy them, & reject what you find contrary to scripture.

Merriam-Webster Definition of Eschatology

Preterist Collection of All End Times Views (Best Site)
"Preterist" is from the Latin for "past time" & refers generally to the view that most of the prophetic passages of the New Testament have been fulfilled throughout most of church history, although they were in the future to the New Testament writers to whom the Holy Spirit revealed the prophecies. Usually preterists understand Jesus' prophecy recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, & Luke 21 as primarily referring to the destruction of the temple & the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans.)

I hope many of you in Southern California will join me this Thursday evening at the Mars Hill Club discussion group as we explore the fascinating subject of biblical prophecy. I have titled my presentation There & Then, Here & Now, Where & When -- Keys to Understanding Biblical Prophecy for 2 reasons. First, it corresponds to an article I wrote on the subject that is good preparation for our discussion. Please take a few moments to read There & Then, Here & Now, Where & When -- Keys to Understanding Biblical Prophecy. The second reason I chose this title (& it's the reason I chose the title originally for the article) is because this sense of past-present-future aspects to prophecy is often overlooked as we commonly focus only on the future aspects of biblical prophecy.

Because we do not have a moderator or topic for November 9, Mars Hill Club will not be meeting. However, join us next week (November 16) when I will be leading the discussion on keys to understandin biblical prophecy. In preparation, see the Answers In Action article I wrote on the subject, There & Then, Here & Now, Where & When -- Keys to Understanding Biblical Prophecy. Hope to see you next week!

Thank you to those of you who joined me last night for our live Mars Hill Club discussion group in Costa Mesa on the subject of "other gospels."

I brought the 2 books I had recommended previously, & a few others that were helpful to the subject of comparing the traditional gospels (the New Testament's Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) with the "other gospels" (the pseudo-apostolic & sub-apostolic books such as the Gospel of Peter, the Travels of Paul & Thekla, etc.).

Our discussion was divided into two parts.

In the first part, I discussed the top reasons to doubt the credibility of the other gospels & to trust the credibility of the traditional gospels. One among the 7 main reasons I gave was that the traditional gospels were not only older than the other gospels (& therefore closer to the events depicted), but crucially datable to the lives of the eyewitnesses & their colleagues, therefore easily testable & refutable. The other gospels, by contrast, were more than a generation removed from the last eyewitnesses & therefore making claims that could not be tested by the eyewitnesses or their colleagues. In fact, most of the other gospels were written between AD 150-250, between 100 & 200 years after the events. Another main reason I gave was that the teachings & events of the traditional gospels were congruent with the worldview & previously accepted revelations of the Old Testament. The reasonable, open-minded, faithful Jew of Jesus' day or in the days of the early apostolic church could have accepted what they taught & depicted. The other gospels, on the other hand, portray a worldview & recount events that are contrary to the Old Testament & would not have been readily received by the earliest Jewish Christians who already accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God. We discussed 5 other main reasons as well.

I'm ready for our discussion this evening on "the other gospels." In case you missed the announcement, I have reproduced it below. Following the replication of the announcement, I have added some new materials that will contribute to our discussion.

REPEAT
At the November 2 meeting of the Mars Hill Club, I will be moderating the discussion on the topic of "the other gospels," those writings that call themselves (or are called) "gospels," but which are not among the canonical 4 gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John).

We will be discussing their identity, origin, age, authorship, teachings, authenticity, & their relationship to the canonical gospels.

On January 4th, 2007, Mars Hill Club will hold an apologetics game; Apologetics Jeopardy! Tell your friends – anyone in attendance can play! That’s right, you don’t need to have a degree or be a regular, just step up to the plate when the questions are asked. Gretchen Passantino will have a special prize for the overall winner.

This game will operate differently from standard Jeopardy! The categories will be: Cults, Science, Resurrection, Skeptics Say..., Bible Difficulties, and Theism. Instead of answering questions in the form of a question, each category will contain an attack against Christianity, theism, or the Christian worldview. Contestants will answer the attacks. Questions will have point values, and answers will be adjudicated by our panel of judges. If the majority of judges agree that the contestant has answered adequately, then points will be assigned.

by Paul Ethington

And Jesus said unto them, "And whom do you say that I am?" They replied, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed." And Jesus replied, "What?"

It will do us little good to grow comfortable with the language of philosophy and the “professor-eze” of specialty journals if we cannot translate its private jargon into ordinary language. The apostle Paul exhibited this concern when he said,

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (1 Cor 2:1-5 NKJV)

In preparation for Halloween, Moderator Melody Sands will moderate a discussion on demons and exorcism. The group will watch "MSNBC Investigates Exorcism", an hour-long exploration of exorcism. We will examine biblical references to demons and demonic possession, and will also look at descriptions of demons and exorcism found in Bill Weise's book "23 Minutes in Hell" and M. Scott Peck's book, "People of the Lie". Participants are invited to bring materials related to demons to share with the Mars Hill group. We will compare all claims about the evening's subject matter with what the Bible, our ultimate authority, says about demons.