Dees anyone know why the darn pages freeze trying to get onto the google site? I am switching google analytics and google buzz off until this is sorted. Major pain when trying to post stuff to facebook.
Daily Archives: September 5, 2010
Quite sensible
One of the things that Kiwis do well is sort our messes. The Christchurch earthquake happened in an area where there is irrigation and dairy.
Water will be short. So KiwiRail and Fonterra, who run most of the dairy factories in New Zealand, got together and did something practical.
KiwiRail is sending almost 300,000 litres of water to quake-struck Christchurch.
KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn said the water would arrive aboard a train early this afternoon and was in response to the city’s need for fresh water after earthquake damage caused by yesterday’s 7.1 magnitude tremor.
About 15 percent of the city remains without water, and those with it are being urged to use it sparingly.
Any drinking water should be boiled for at least three minutes.
“It’s a practical contribution we can make to Christchurch’s emergency response and we will be looking for other ways that rail can be used to support the region’s recovery,” he said.
“We are grateful to Fonterra for making the tanks available for the shipment.”
KiwiRail opened the railway line south of Christchurch last night but continuing aftershocks meant a speed limit of 40kmh had been imposed. That was reduced to 25kmh over bridges.
Contra antichristorum
My dog latin may have got the heading wrong. I’m reflecting on the comment from James that there are many anti Christs, for he who denies Jesus is LORD is the antichrist.
Jesus makes an exclusive claim. This is commonly called the Good Shepherd sermon. It is used as a comfort to the beleivers — who note that Jesus, who gave his life for us, will call those who are his from all nations.
John 10:1-18
1″Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11″I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Ministries & Programs — GAMC.
The Victorians loved this and in their preraphelite sentimentality made many works of art. This cartoon by Burke is one example.
The problem is that this teaching has some exclusive claims. Jesus says he is the only way to salvation. Mohammed, Buddha, or Joseph Smith do not cut it: they are called thieves and robbers. We may make alliances across faiths to ensure political and moral change, but God calls us through Jesus, and any other way is a lie.
This teaching is offensive to publick religion. Publick religion is, at least in the west, a combination of Buddhist many-paths teaching, lowest common denominator ethics, and residual Christian terms. It has the form of the gospel but denies the power of it.
Publick religion is an antichrist, for it denies Jesus. It may be that Mohammed saw the public religion of the byzantines and rebelled, forming a unificed religious political front. In which case, that is again antichristian — explicitly by doctrine, and worked out in the rage of Jihad.
There is nothing new in this discussion. Luther said that the Pope was an antichrist because his doctrine was flawed, but the turk was the flesh for the antichrist because (in that time) they were invading Christian territories and murdering the inhabitants that would not convert.
It is the duty of this age to confront the antichristian ideologies and activists we now have, in the church and out of them. The test is very simple — is it through Jesus, the Lord of all, who gave our life on our behalf that any are saved or not? There is no need for sophistry or an argument from silence here.