Some of you may have seen this recently, but for the rest of you here is a review of an important archaeological find. How does a copper mine in Edom help to demonstrate the reliability of the Bible? Read on.

“To him who knows his website has an error and doesn't fix it, to him it is sin”
 - 1st Hesitations

This is a confession.
I have been informed that posting a comment gives an error. Fortnuately the comment still gets added. I have not yet figured out why the error is occurring, but it is on my list of things that should have been done yesterday. I hope to correct this by mid-day tomorrow. So if you want to have some great excitement here at Theoblogian, you only have a few hours left to make an "err-raising" comment.

I received a mailing this week from a certain prominent pastor, and something he said in it rubbed me the wrong way. I can understand why he is saying it, but I still do not like it. Here is the quote.

"Certainty is everything, and it is the objective of my life. Clarity is critical. Ambiguity is deadly because it produces nothing - people don't get saved, sanctified, or comforted."

There is certainly truth in this statement, since we have to be non-ambiguous in some areas. However, the danger is that we push the pendulum too far in the other direction: we need ambiguity and non-certainity in some areas. We cannot be certain about everything. Now, of course, this man would agree with the latter statement. But I think that he is certain about a lot more things than we have the right to be certain about. And this kind of certainty is dangerous. It breeds arrogance. It stifles thinking. It hurts missionary work. It does not accurately reflect the word of God. It is overly influenced by ones own cultural context and worldview. 

Ok, I am getting off my soap box now.  Thanks for listening. I appreciate any thoughts.

Things have been a little slow here at  Theoblogian. I thought a word of explanation might be in order. We all know that Charlie hasn’t been getting any sleep lately, but Sam and I have been busy too. Sam is preparing his office for a move. Three words: “unorganized academic records.” I have been doing yard work. Do any of you remember the healthy yard my wife asked for for Christmas? Well I finally got around to doing the work. And this week add jury duty for my wife, carpet cleaning on her second day of jury duty, and things are pretty quiet around here for all of us.