Phil Gons

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Archives for 2006

Create Your Own Search Engine

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I recently found out about Google Co-op. It allows you to create your own web search, or as many different searches as you want. In other words, you tell it which websites to search, and it will search just those sites or simply put those sites first. Take all your favorite biblical resources sites, create a search, and then add it to your Google homepage (or bookmark it) and share it with others.

I’ve played around with a few, and I think this has real potential to be very helpful! Try out my Reformed Theology search, and feel free to edit it by adding other Reformed sites. Maybe we could start an MP3 search for sermons and lectures. Lots of potential here. Let me know if you create any.

Firefox 2.0 Is Here

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If you’ve been using Firefox 1.5, you might be interested to know that Firefox 2.0 was officially released yesterday. (If you haven’t been using Firefox, now’s a great time to start.) It’s got a lot of great features that keep it a couple steps ahead of the new Internet Explorer 7. E.g., FF 2 (1) has a built-in auto spell checker that will underline misspelled words in red when you type text into text boxes (I love it! It’s great for bloggers!), (2) forces a new window to open as a tab instead of a new browser window (very nice), (3) implements improved tabbed browsing, and (4) will reopen your browser exactly how it was before if it happens to crash (which isn’t very often). Download it now.

The Ten Commandments (2006)

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Shanna and I got another call from the local movie store inviting us to come in for a free rental. We took them up on it and got The Ten Commandments. It was just shy of three hours long, which, in this case, was not a good thing! It stood in stark contrast to the commitment to following the biblical story that The Gospel of John evidenced. I’m not opposed to filling in some of the details to make the story flow. Nor am I totally opposed to omitting some of the story to make it a reasonable length. However, I am opposed to making up all sorts of ridiculous things and adding them in addition to or in place of the biblical account! I did benefit from the few portions that were an accurate recounting of the Exodus record. Seeing the events visualized brings them to life. I’ll read Exodus in a new way next time. This benefit notwithstanding, The Ten Commandments (2006) was incredibly poor. Don’t waste your three hours.

Catalyst Conference 2006—A Summary Article

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I had the opportunity to attended the 2006 Catalyst Conference (dubbed “Clearly”) in Atlanta on Thursday and Friday two weeks ago (Oct 5–6) with a good friend of mine—and ostensibly over 10,000 pastors. Catalyst claims to be the largest pastors conference around.

My place of employment asked me to write a review article of the event—and to be as objective as possible. I’d like to write a full critique of the conference, but probably will not due to time constraints. So if you read my review, please understand that the article would look significantly different if I had written it here. I believe what I wrote in the article is accurate; it just doesn’t go far enough (understatement!) in its critique.

Paradigm Shift—Paul’s Use of Σάρξ

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Over the past couple of years, and particularly the past several months, I’ve been in the process of a fairly significant paradigm shift in the way I read the NT—particularly Paul. Though I have already made a major shift, I’m still somewhat in transition; I’m still testing my conclusions to see if they fit naturally or if they must be forced to work. The shift involves a significant challenge to the way interpretors for hundreds of years have understood Paul’s use of σάρξ.

Several factors have influenced this transition.

(1) I chose Herman Ridderbos for my Adv. NTT theologian project, whose emphasis on Heilsgeschichte has opened my eyes to the objective, historical elements of Paul’s thought that are too often read in a more existential, ahistorical (and acontextual!) way. One example: when Paul says that now is the day of salvation, he doesn’t mean this text to be used (primarily) as a appeal to teenage campers to make a decision for Christ before it’s too late; rather, he is arguing that the fulfillment of the promise of the New Covenant has dawned with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are living in the era of salvation foretold by the OT prophets.

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Loving God Supremely

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I found these words from Piper to be convicting in that they reveal my all-too-idolatrous heart—my tendency to enjoy the gifts of God more than God the Giver:

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

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