Thursday, November 25, 2010

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

REDISCOVERING LINUX AGAIN!!!

In the past, I have used this blog to chronicle my ventures into open source software. Perhaps a scan of posts-gone-by in my Blog Archive (on the right side, scroll down a bit) will yield the accounts of my brief excursion into Linux, which ended in utter disgust because of its continual need for fixing and my endless investigations into how to do so. "Exasperating" is the word I would use here.

But, lo and behold, Ubuntu has redeemed Linux from my OS anathema. It can be a little slow at times. In fact, my computer "crashed" (froze) while I was using Ubuntu to surf and play multimedia. Oh well, I just restarted it (rebooted in Ubuntu) and it has been performing admirably for the most part.

I am playing a media file in Firefox using Ubuntu's plug-in player, the name of which escapes me, and I hope to revisit it for future reference. RhythmBox is the iTunes equivalent for Ubuntu. Very impressive features.

Though simpler looking, Ubuntu Linux can be extremely entertaining and more fun to run than Windows. This has been a free review of Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support).

Monday, November 8, 2010

OH, NO, I'M NOT EVANGELICAL!!!

Here is the latest snippet of discouragement which I encountered while exploring Praxis Church online. I found it in their study guide to the sermon, "The Survivor's Guide to the Apocalypse."

"Debates about eschatology (the study of end times) go back to the very beginning of the Christian faith. In fact, Paul deals with such discussions in 2 Timothy 2:18. Men named Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching that Jesus’ second coming had already occurred and so the people were waiting in vain. Paul calls this teaching “irreverent babble” that could lead people astray. Ironically, I think much of the recent debate about Eschatology could be described the same way." [emphases mine]
Here is the clincher:
"Full preterism—which insists that every prophecy and promise in the NT was fulfilled by a.d. 70—is not a legitimate evangelical option, for it:
  • denies Jesus’ future bodily return;
  • denies the physical resurrection of believers at the end of history; and
  • denies the physical renewal/re-creation of the present heavens and earth (or their replacement by a “new heaven and earth”).
However, preterists who (rightly) insist that these events are still future are called “partial preterists.” [bullet points added]
Why does a sincere challenge by fellow Christians toward preterism engender this struggle within me to run back to futurism? Can I be that wrong, that I am utterly deluded by preterism's simplicity-- its logical conclusions, its water-tight explanations, its contrarian reputation, its minority report among evangelicals? I don't know.

I know condemnation is not from the Lord to His people. I know who it comes from.

Still, I feel I must justify my position, such as it is, or abandon it completely. So help me God.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

POST-ELECTION POLITICAL PARODY

Allow me to indulge in a little irreverent revelry after a huge victory for conservative/Christian/Republican citizens of our USA.




Follow the line of arguments put forth by classical liberalism in response to common sense and reasonable discourse. What fun!