Territorial Bloggings

I fell woefully behind in my regular blog-reading last week, and my efforts to catch up have yielded quite a few responses/postings today. And here’s another…

Pr. Stiegemeyer, over at Burr in the Burgh (Congrats on breaking the 10K hits mark, and in only 3 months! :shock:), has a recent trilogy of posts that are most deserving of your time for reading & consideration.

1) In Is Death a Natural Part of Life?, the good Rev. clearly & most comfortingly explains just how & why death is not “natural” and/or “a part of God’s plan” for His creation. Pr. Stiegemeyer’s commentary on the “Culture of Death” currently en vogue are spot on and worthy of further consideration. Ultimately, I very much agree with the idea that death, which came into being through sin, is a terribly un-natural corruption of God’s plan for creation. And, it is only through the actions of Christ that death has been transformed into something we need not fear.

2) In Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Pr. Stiegemeyer describes a session at the recent Worldview Conference where Dr. Gene Edward Veith spoke on the recent book/study of how American teens view God (it’s also the subject of a recent column by Dr. Veith in World Magazine). This view is basically rehashed “Theology of Glory” wherein God benignly wants us to be happy (and nice!), and stands by watching while we pursue said happiness. It’s works-righteousness, prosperity-gospel, etc. — and it’s quite mistaken.

3) Finally, in Rick Warren and the Moral Influence Theory, Pr. Stiegemeyer exposes Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life as the theologically bankrupt & ultimately spiritually damaging piece of garbage for what it is — Man-centered, faith-killing heterodoxy. I agree. TPDL is nowhere near being salvageable, as the amount of effort it would take to cull the chaff away from the few kernels of wheat would cause one to collapse from exhaustion.

Profuse thanks go to Pr. Stiegemeyer for his many edifying posts!

-ghp