Misinterpreting Scripture - Isaiah 6:8

Isaiah 6:8 (New International Version)

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

"Whom shall I send?And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

This is a wonderful Bible story. The prophet Isaiah finds himself, miraculously, at the throne of God. After seeing the angels worship God he cries out that he is unclean and so are his people. An angel then touches his lips with a hot coal and tells him that his sins are forgiven and atoned for. But the part we know the best is what happens next. God wants to send someone to deliver His message and Isaiah famously responds with "Here am I. Send me!"

Guilt trips have been laid on many believers by missionary groups who claim that if you want to serve God you will also volunteer to go out and spread the gospel in foreign countries...and wouldn't you know it - that speaker just happens to know a good mission trip for you. (If you haven't run into this, count your blessings.)

There is a problem with this approach, besides the obvious fact that Christians shouldn't lay guilt trips on each other, that is that foreign missions have nothing to do with the work of Isaiah. A few verses later we see that God is asking Isaiah to preach to his own country and that they will not even listen to him. Reading the rest of the book we see that the prophet does not travel anywhere but stays put and advises the king of Israel. This pokes a big hole in the "Isaiah 6:8 means everyone has to be a foreign missionary" theory.

Did you read the entire chapter? I didn't think so.

In this situation, "Here am I, send me" meant prophesying to a stubborn local population. For you, it could mean traveling to a far away country, volunteering at church, or taking care of elderly relatives who have no one else. Let's discover these things on our own and not allow a guilt trip to lead us.

Thinking Through...The Da Vinci Code

With a sequel to The Da Vinci Code on the way to theaters, it seemed wise to point out the silliness of Dan Brown's accusations. I hear that his book is fun to read (I'm a busy medievalist and only have time to read actual books about church history) but his claims are ludicrous and have added to society's misunderstandings about Christianity.

Hey, it's an effeminate guy! And, look, another effeminate guy!
Proof that there were 13 women at the Last Supper!

My favorite is the assertion that Constantine decided the canon, that is, that he decided which books of the Bible would be authoritive. This is not supported by documentation, in fact, he relied on other theologians for his spiritual leadership. He called for meetings to decide how the church could be organized, but only made recommendations; he did not try to shape theology. As this book will tell you, he did not care about having too many specific points in his belief system; instead, he was interested in helping the different factions of the church agree on some basic principles so they could be united.

The canon is usually attributed to Athansius, who lived at the same time as Constantine but was certainly not his friend. (After Athanasius' recommendation, the canon was further scrutinized and discussed by the church so it cannot be said that any single person made the decision.)

Listverse.com has a fantastic article on this and the real reason I set up this blog entry was so I could simply point you there - but I got distracted and wanted to write about Constantine. Enjoy, and tell your friends not to be afraid of albinos. Here's the list.

As if Theology Students Don't Have Enough Problems

I walked into an empty classroom and noticed something like this on the board:

Neo-Platonic

Orthopraxis

So I took the opportunity to grab a piece of chalk and make some additions. Now, the board says this:

Neo-Platonic Supralapsarianism

Orthopraxis vs. Neo-Constantinopolitanism

With any luck, a theology student will see it and his head will explode.

"That's not funny, I made up those words."

Thinking Through...Swine Flu

As you can tell, I'm not posting a lot right now and it has to do with school. It's this time of year when I don't water the plants, clean the apartment, or take care of anything but the most vital responsibilities to my health while finishing essays and madly reading texts in time for quizzes. And my blog suffers for it.

Anyway, I came across some advice on the swine flu (via Instapundit.com), here's the two main ideas, but there is more at the link:

*There is always some flu around and flu is always killing some people. Even when a raw mutant flu manages to kill off more people than a shooting-war, flu has never ravaged whole cities as cholera or the Black Death can do. As awful pandemics go, flu is like the snotty-nosed little sister of awful pandemics.

*You're not ACTUALLY gonna die unless your lips are turning blue, you have bad chest pains, you can't swallow water, you can't stand up, you're having seizures and you don't know where you are or what your name is. As this document suggests, you're gonna want to watch out for those symptoms.

And this simple, but critical, piece of advice from the Center of Disease Control:

The main way that influenza viruses are thought to spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person are propelled through the air and deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby. Influenza viruses may also be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets on another person or an object and then touches their own mouth or nose (or someone else’s mouth or nose) before washing their hands.

(The link also contains information for what to do if you or someone else contracts the swine flu.)

So wash your hands like your mother always told you to do and don't worry. also, if you know of any more tips that are helpful, let me know in the comments. (Oh, yeah, and this guy looks really funny. Do they steal driver's license photos for these pictures?)