Formspring Question #254--Ten Percent Edition

Taxes today are lower than they have been since the 50's (both for the super-rich and for the middle class) but most conservatives still want them lower. What is TOO LOW a tax rate?

God only requires ten percent, so the government has to make an airtight case why it needs more. Not only that, but since God asks for the first and best ten percent, government needs to wait its turn, as well.

Pat Robertson is Wrong Yet Again

Just to keep you all from breaking Formspring by overloading it with queries, yes, I know Pat Robertson said divorcing spouses afflicted with Alzheimer's is acceptable because it is a 'kind of death." As usual, he is being bigoted and un-Biblical. I am certain his behavior comes as much of a shock to you as it does to me. By tomorrow, we will probably learn his wife has Alzheimer's.

Yes, I went to law school at his Regent University. Yes, I went in spite of robertson, not because of him. Yes, I regret attending. No, there is nothing i can do about it now. No, i am not responsible for what Robertson says. No, I am not responsible for what he says because my diploma has his signature on it. No, he is not representative of Christian belief. no, the words or action of one Christian are not enough to condemn the entire religion.

Have I covered everything? I have had to run through this routine like a fire drill many times since setting foot on the Regent university campus ten years ago. I am confident I have it down pat--no pun intended--but things have a way of sneaking up on you and gouging your eyes out, which I cannot afford. I only have one left, and it sucks.

Will the World End Saturday?

A slight departure from the usual grist for the mill. If matters of faith and belief are not your "cup of tea", then note that we will return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.



I suppose, there is a sense in which, if true, this story should surpass every other one in the last couple of millennium, but, other than a bit in Doonesbury, it hasn't been covered that much in the MSM. Someone bought a full page on the back of USA Today proclaiming May 21, 2011 as being Judgment Day. I've also seen billboards along side I-5 and Hwy 880 in California proclaiming the same thing.

Now, in case you are not so inclined to rent a billboard or buy a full page ad, if you really believed the message, what else would you spend your money on between now and the end of the world?

I don't want to belittle these people. They are somewhat reminiscent of the Adventist movements of the mid to late nineteenth century. Convinced that the "Advent" of Christ was upon them, some believers wrapped themselves in white robes and went up into the hills to wait for Jesus to come back. When it was apparent that he had not returned as yet, the movements found ways to rationalize why their calculations were wrong and modified their beliefs to match their new reality.

This movement is fueled by the efforts of one Harold Camping. Mr. Camping is a fairly quiet and unassuming man, who believes that the Bible alone should be the guide to the Christian faith and the only guide to interpreting the Bible itself.

I've met Harold Camping. He does not strike one as a wild eyed street corner preaching proclaiming the "End is Near".

Behind thousands of “Judgement Day” billboards from rural highways to city skylines and a small army of volunteers that have traipsed across the country preaching May 21 as the beginning of the world’s destruction is a frail, 89-year-old California multimillionaire who runs one of the largest Christian radio networks in the world.

Each day, Harold Camping’s slow and sonorous Bible readings and his Open Forum call-in show broadcast for hours from the Oakland, Calif. headquarters of Family Radio.

Family Radio has been preaching and teaching the Bible as a worldwide ministry for many years now. My children, when they were little, used to listen to their children's programming on Saturday mornings. (Big Jon and Sparky) Big Jon Arthur himself became a convert to Christianity and was a part of Family Radio for many years up until the time of his death.

It is hard to fathom, how a man like Mr. Camping, who believes the Bible to be the infallible Word of God, can read something like Matthew 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." and then presume to make a prediction as to what day Christ will return.

There have been those through the ages who believed that times couldn't be any worse than theirs, that whatever tyrant or despot they faced was a fulfillment of prophecy.

Nero persecuted Christians, and many thought he was the Beast of the Revelation. Hitler was believed to be the Beast, as well. There is a sense in which they were all correct. For every generation, it is the last. Sometime in this generation, every man woman and child will stand before their maker. Because, dear friend, you are going to die. Someday.

So, if you consider whether or not the world will end Saturday, you can safely answer, yes it will...for someone. Maybe not for you, likely not for everyone, but for some. And for them, it will be, you'll excuse the expression, as serious as a heart attack.

I believe that was one of the reasons why Christ did not reveal a day or set a time. He wanted every generation to be as diligent to prepare themselves and their fellow men for eternity as if the world might end tomorrow. Because for some people, it will.

Note: I thought about frivolously asking if perhaps Obama listened to Family Radio, if he was trying to fulfill prophecy with his new anti-Israel policy. But, as much as I don't think it will foment thermonuclear war in the next twenty four hours, it's not for want of trying!

See? I told you we'd return to our regular programming!

C. S. Lewis on the Claims of Christ

In the providence of God, I just so happen to be having a small theological discussion on another forum with a fellow whom I reckon goes to church about as often as my cat sings opera. So, I guess Easter Sunday is as good a time as any to quote that great, Christian apologist C.S. Lewis:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)