Karl Barth: Satan’s Minion?

Since school begins in two weeks, my girlfriend gave me her all her books from last year. Thankfully, I can use most of them. Among these well kept books (thank you!) was my textbook for my class on Revelation: Book of the Revelation by Beka Horton, published by A Beka Book, based in Pensacola Christian College.

In a subsection entitled Satan Countermoves with Neo-orthodoxy (in the chapter Laodicean 20th Century Church), the author writes:

“In the 1940s and 50s, Satan launched a much more subtle attack; in fact, it was so subtle that many pastors were oblivious to the attack. A Swiss theologian named Karl Barth (bärt: 1886-1968) appeared on the scene. While Barth reacted to the unbelief of Modernism, he also rejected major Biblical doctrines. He said that orthodoxy was all right, but we need a new kind of orthodoxy. He fathered Neo-orthodoxy, or new orthodoxy, using Biblical phrases but giving them liberal meanings. His reinterpretation of Biblical truth swept through seminaries and into American pulpits in the 40s and 50s. Neo-orthodoxy deceitfully used the language of traditional Christianity while retaining liberal meanings to Biblical words and phrases. In a sense, Barth was an agnostic (one who does not know), for he seldom expressed himself positively but engaged in paradoxical double-talk. He declared that we actually know little or nothing about God and that we cannot have a real experimental knowledge of God for “God is in heaven and thou upon earth.” Barth taught that the Bible is full of errors and inconsistencies. Barth did not believe the Bible to be the Word of God; he taught that the Bible only contained the record of religious men’s encounters with God and their insights into religious matters. While he did not categorically deny the virgin birth, he insisted it is of no importance, making no difference whether one believes it or not. He held the same view on the resurrection as on the virgin birth; i.e., it may be true, but it is not important. He declared that while the Bible “contains” the Word of God, it is not the Word of God.” -  Book of the Revelation, Beka Horton, pp. 161

Now, I admit that I have never read anything of Karl Barth’s. But after hearing so much of him and his monumental Church Dogmatics, the guy can’t be the pawn of Satan that my textbook makes him out to be.

Thoughts? Comments? Snide remarks?

Puppet Party

Okay, so more about these puppets in New York. Some of the fun I had was actually backstage. My friend is apparently very sensitive around the back of his neck, so while he was puppeteering (or whatever it’s called), I would get my puppet and start biting his neck with it. He would then cringe and of course his puppet on stage would be affected, though not much. Fun times.

The most hilarious bits, though, occured the days that I wasn’t puppeteering. Apparently one of the puppeteers, a local of the church, thought that it would be funny to stick the puppet’s hand in his mouth for the entire show. He says he did it on purpose – I’m not sure. But it was freaking hysterical. The thing had his hand in his mouth the whole time, even when the voice on the tape was screaming.

The other time was when Debbie, the black puppet with long black spaghetti hair, had her hair undone by on the girls. By the time she was on stage, her hair was all over the place, sometimes in her mouth, sometimes covering her entire face. Funny stuff.

The blue one is Billy, whom I affectionately called the Emo. He just looks dopy. Anyway, I was often Billy.

The person to the left is, erm, Grandpa. Or Mom. It was actually the adrogynous puppet – it changed genders to fit the needs of the script. Such is life. You can also see some of Debbie’s hair troubles creeping up on her.

Debbie’s got a mouthful of spaghetti.

Short shorts?

In this post, I commented that I wasn’t in volleyball for the girls’ short-shorts. Amusingly, it appears that someone found this blog by typing exactly that: college volleyball girls short shorts.

Rofl.

I’m a New Yorker Now

Well, not really. But I did return last night from New York. It was an eventful trip. I know you’re all dying to hear about it, so here at the highlights:

•  Our flight was supposed to leave sometime around four last Saturday, but we were delayed about two hours in the terminal and then two hours on the plane itself.
• Since we had not eaten dinner, we stopped at this place called Yummy Taco, which was an awesome Mexican restaurant run by Chinese people. And to top it off they had techno playing. Strange, but great food.
• We stayed in the basement of the church and helped the pastor out during the week.
• At night we ran a summer adventure club for the kids. It consisted of singing some songs, telling a bible story, doing some crafts, telling another bible thing, and then doing puppets.
• I must focus on the puppets. It was a complete blast to do puppets. We had so many laughs, on stage and off, about the silly things with the puppets. I’ll post some pictures later.
• At night we went sightseeing. We travelled to Time’s Square twice, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, and took the Staten Island Ferry at night.
• The last few days I got a bit of a fever, so I was feeling, well, feverish.
• I was happy to arrive back in good ‘ol Florida at around 11:20 or something like that on Saturday night. It was a great chance to be a blessing to the pastor and the church in Brooklyn, and also to see what God is doing in other places. Hopefully God molded me to be more of a willing servant during the week.

I’m back.

One Book Meme

Let me jump on the bangwagon, since I was not tagged. *hurt*

1. One book that changed your life:
Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
The Bible >.>…..

4. One book that made you laugh:
The Rapture by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, and that was only from reading a bit in the store!
5. One book that made you cry:
I don’t remember the title, but it was a book of writings of a writer who died of Cystic Fibrosis
6. One book that you wish had been written:
Tolkien’s sequel to LotR
7. One book you’re currently reading:
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart. D. Ehrman

My Departure is at Hand

And yes, at hand in the preterist sense, not in the “maybe 2000 years” sense.

I’ll be leaving for NY in just a few hours with a few kids from my youth group and my former youth pastor. We’re going to be helping out some churches up there. We’ll be doing a variety of service activities, but I suppose the most frightening of them all is…

Teaching Vacation Bible School to kids.

Yes, fear. I don’t think I teach kids very well. Especially when I have to act all happy and giddy and like we’re sailing or something. Oh well. I just hope I do well and that I am a blessing to the brethren up north.

So see you guys in a week!

My New Obsession

And no, it’s not because of the girls in short shorts.

I attended a volleyball camp at a local college for a week. It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, since I can get pretty down when I don’t perform well. But hey, I expect too much out of myself; I’m just a newbie at the sport. I think I improved much, and I even won Hitter of the Day on Wednesday.

Hopefully I’ll just find a way to play the game consistently until boys’ volleyball practice begins sometime in the winter. By then I’ll have the skillz that killz!

Mr. Metzger and my Buddy Bart

Since I know you’ve all been just dying to know what I’ve been reading lately, I’ll let you know: The Text of the New Testament: It’s Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger and Bart Ehrman. Besides a rather lengthy description of the plant from which we get papyri, I’ve been enjoying it.

A very humorous excerpt from the section in which the authors describe how scribes, who were not allowed to speak, would communicate with each other:

Though scribes were forbidden to talk to one another in the scriptorium, the more irrepressible found devious way sto communicate with each other. One such means was to jot remarks on the margin of the page being transcribed and to show it to one’s neighbor. The margins of the ninth-century Latin manuscript of Cassiodorus’ commentary on the Psalms contain a variety of commonplace remarks written in Irish. For example: “It is coldtoday.” “That is natural; it is winter.” “The lamp gives a bad light.” “It is time fo rus to begin to do some work.” “Well, this vellum is certainly heavy!” “Well, I call this vellum thin!” “I feel quite dull today; I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” – The Text of the New Testament, Metzger and Ehrman, pp. 32

And the answer is…

You scored as Amillenialist. Amillenialism believes that the 1000 year reign is not literal but figurative, and that Christ began to reign at his ascension. People take some prophetic scripture far too literally in your view. Amillenialist 100% Preterist 90% Moltmannian Eschatology 85% Postmillenialist 85% Premillenialist 25% Dispensationalist 0% Left Behind 0% What’s your eschatology? created with QuizFarm.com

Thanks to that crazy Mexican for the link. And notice this, my friends: 0% for “Dispensationalist” and “Left Behind’! I can sleep easily tonight.

What is it about ‘Classics?’

Well? I’ve been hearing from some people that Classics is a good undergrad major before jumping into the wide world of biblical studies. Why is this? And why isn’t it better just to get an undergrad in religious studies or a B.A. in Bible or something like that?