A Better Day:
Please be advised that FIDE-O representative Jason Robertson has responded to my last post and has stated that his position is now more Amil than any thing else.
I fully accept Amillenialism as Orthodox. It is one of the two oldest eschatological positions in the history of the Christian Church.
The comments in the previous post about FIDE-O being now classified as HETRODOX are hereby wthdrawn. The post remains up only because it states very clearly how I feel about the eschatalogical positions named within in it.

SAD DAY:

It's always sad when having to write a post like this, and kind of Ironic given what I said in my last post about FIDE-O.
FIDE-O has abandoned dispensationalism. Ordinarily this is not nececssarily a bad thng. Thanks to the destructive and destabilizing affect that Charismatics have had on any area of theology they have touched, many fields, not just eschatology, are in tremendous flux.
People who run around claming that God has revealled this or that piece of exigetical nonsense are not usually open to instruction. The damage of charismatic subjectivism has been especially hard on dispensationalism. So viewing the chaos that has spread through dispensationalism like a cancer it's not suprising to see FIDE-O abandoning it. I would not be writing what I am about to write if FIDE-O HAD BECOME AMIL.
However it seems that FIDE-O has embraced Postmillenialism( Church will set up Gods' kingdom on earth). They also speak very highly of preterism ( a view that holds that everything has been fulfilled except the second comming, although some hold that even that has been fulfilled). They have spoken dismissively of, and not really responded to the attempt of one reader to call them to account for this.
They've also engaged in the selective quotation of early church fathers to make preterism look plausible.
As one who has read much about this type of issue, and not wishing to be tedious I wish to state one thing : One can legitmately prove from the writings of the church fathers that the two most ancient forms of eschatology in the church were a generalised premillenialism( which appears in writing first, Polycarp and Ireaneus) or Amillenialism( Origin is it's father and Augistine is it's mid-wife). It is true that one can find the odd statement by a church father that could be stretched to give apparent support to say preterism or postmillenialism but the whole tenor of their writings is either premil or Amil. Any other characterisation is simply very dishonest.
As FIDE-O has proceded on this course I must withdraw any and all recommendations inferred or implied, explicit or indirect.
FIDE-O IS NOW CLASSIFIED AS HETRODOX.
Enter at your own risk. A Sad Day Indeed!

I had mentioned when I posted some comments over at the always excellent FIDE-O blog that this week I would likely post on Christian support of violent sports, but I must beg the idulgence and patience of the 1 or 2 readers that I have.
It is approximately 100 very humid degrees out and I have a poor head for heat. I haven't adapted yet so I have very little energy. I'll post more as soon as I've adapted to the heat.
GBA ( God Bless America )
SDG

Stepping in it!

I've had some great fun recently posting recently over at the FIDE-O blogspot. They are a highly literate, competitive group of guys who almost always have something interesting to say.
Visiting there is never boring. They seem to be up for any question and they don't pull their punches when answering. Which is something you'll find out empirically if they disagree with you!

IN OTHER NEWS :
It would be a good idea to pray at this time for the situation over in the MDDLE EAST.
Things seem to be spiraling out of control over there and that could put American and allied troops at risk if it continues to escalate. The possibility of a wider war into which everyone could get dragged into is something that should prayerfully concern us all!
GBA (God Bless America)
SDG ( Sola Deo Gloria )

Opponents of intelligent design often point to the lack of scientific proof. They generally forget to mention that any credentialed scholar that attempts to put forward such proof is likely to have his credentials or his access to publishing in scientific journals yanked. All because the writers of said papers believed the evidence pointed to the existence of a Creator.
It would be different if scientifc papers and institutions were saying, " This is the criteria we require all those who publish academic papers in our journal to meet. " Instead, as was the case with Scientific American a few months ago, Unless your paper supports atheistic evolution kiss your chances good-bye, and if you belong to any academic fellowships they'll go after you too.
Science was supposed to be about the search for the truth whever the facts lead. But modern Science has evolved into the religion of Scientism in which you can follow the facts provided that they don't lead to a Creator, even if that's where the evidence points.
It's kind of like tying your opponent to a chair and then calling him a coward for not fighting you, or locking him in prision and then complaining that he is to scared to debate you.
It is many things, but it isn't fair, and it's not science!

Psalm 119 : 104 " Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. "
Nowhere does God command us to love other religious systems. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. By definition this rules out all other competitors for humanity's allegiance.
Today's " Church " seeks to learn other religions, and to incorporate anything it can into its' worship and doctrine. God has always been clear about such things ( see Deut. 12 :30-32 ).

I do not love Islam, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, New Age Spirituality, or That rehash of Liberalism known as The Emergent Church. I love the people trapped within these false ways.
Why is the Church compromising want is not ours to compromise?
Just Wondering!
SDG! Have a great weekend everyone!

We should continue to pray for the U. S. A. and Israel. These are not easy times for either nation.
As for the NY Times revealing a classified program, I wish to say this.
The Pentagon Papers revealled that the US was lying about how the war in Vietnam was going.
The domestic telephone monitoring program is an Orwellian program that exists directly contray to promises made by President Bush. Revealling these programs was arguably necessary.
The recent NY Times revelations about the financial monitoring programs being used to track down and cut off terrorist financing is simply cold blooded, partisan based, treason. A UN report in 2002 apparently mentioned the program and this has been used to justify publicising it under the guise that it was already known.
Question? Who the heck does the NY Times think it's kidding with that line? After all, who read UN reports about anything? If a UN representative told me that it was sunny out I would have to look outside to verify it before I believed it.
The editors of the NY Times should be tried for treason. They are almost certainly safe though.
Congress is concerned only with the election of its' members. Neither it, nor sadly, even the President have the testicles to tackle anything of substance.
After all. If they didn't have the courage to do anything meaningful about illegal immigration they certainly don't have the testicles to face the fourth estate. Sadly it will probably take a serious breach of secrecy, one that costs US or allied lives for that to happen, and then of course the recommended cure will be worse than the disease.
Pray for the leaders of Western Civilization that they awake to the dangers of the hour before its' too late. May God bless America! As she goes so goes the West.

Wow!!
It seems that I can say anything and be ignored! Nothing that I said in my previous post should be taken to mean that I have something against the institution of marriage. I've been married for 17 years.
I've just seen a lot of wreckage in that time. Your personal experience may well be different, and I do not want to minimize that. Just remember that marriage is very serious business.
Other than surrendering your life to God through His Son Jesus Christ, nothing can benefit your life more than a well chosen marriage. Most people, (men are especially guilty here ) however spend more time selecting a car to buy than someone to marry. The consequences are all around us.

Marriage, thoughtfully and prayerfully entered into, can be a slice of heaven on earth. You will do more for Christ, and life in general than you ever could alone. Choose wrongly and you are toast.

Women have been on the short end of the stick, in regards to marriage, more often than men, but it still happens. If you take your vows seriously you are assuming a series of almost unlimited liabilities. A wrongly chosen, professing Christian, spouse can destroy your life with the blessing of the church and the man is responsible.
Let me share a dirty little secret with all those christian women out there who wonder why men are reluctant to get married now a days. In part it's about authority. Even in Christian circles a man has all the responsibilites but none of the authority of his historical counterpart. Financially a wife can keep the couple in a state of near bankruptcy, deny him sex for years on end, and both the church and society will blame him. In the church he will be held responsible for her actions ( unless it's the big " A " ) and will be denied ministry opportunities. If he attempts to complain to the minister it will almost always work around to be his fault( whether it is or not ).
A women can get credit cards and loans based on her husbands income, without his knowledge or consent, but ( depending on where you live) the reverse rarely holds true.
The same type of situation holds true in most jurisdictions if the marriage fails. Women can violate custody orders, deny visitation, levy false accusation after false accusation without penalty and the man is almost( though thankfully not totally ) defenseless.
I have seen all these senarios play out in the last 20 years of ministry. I realize that their are still men out there who are thoroughly worthless human beings and deserve everything they suffer, but more and more I'm running into abused men. Men whoose lives have been destroyed, who are showing all the psychological markers that I only used to see in abused women, and almost no one cares. Each act of abuse by a woman is seen by society as the act of an individual woman.
Every abusive act by a man is seen as being( potentially) the act of every man.
This is the situation in most of the West now.
A Christian has to understand that he is beholden to fulfill the vows he utters on the day of his wedding regardless of whether or not his wife fulfills hers. If you have any doubts about whether or not your bride to be intends to fulfill her vows then do not marry her ( I would tell a woman the same thing on this score ). The pain of a break up before marriage is far easier to deal with than the almost perpetual purgatory of dealing with and attempting to fix an ill-advised marriage after the fact.
Those who used to tell couples that marriage was a sacred institution, not to be entered into lightly, weren't kidding. There would be a lot less wreckage for the rest of us to clean up if couples would remeber that.

My Jack Russell " Rocky " is feeling much better. My thanks to the one reader of this Blog who prayed.
A Happy 4th of July to all my American Brothers and Sisters in Christ.