Something to roll over in your mind

What follows is taken from http://www.henryinstitute.org/commentary_read.php?cid=424, a site of a Southern professor. This is a question he asked his students on an Ethics final. It's intended to be outrageous. But what do you all think? Our world is getting to be a bizarre place with all sorts of questions we will have to answer that no generation ever has before (with in-vitro fertilization, gender transformations, etc.)....I would probably have gotten an F on this one--Here you go:

It is the distant future. You are 106 years-old, and in good health with a sound mind. Your great-grandson, Joshua, is a young pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention (now called the Galactic Immersionist Federation). He is seeking your counsel because, as he puts it, "I've got a question and there's nothing about this in the Bible."

Modern technology has enabled infertile couples to engineer what the press of the day calls "robo-frankenbabies." These babies' bodies are constructed partially with, as in the Frankenstein novel of old, body parts from human corpses and partially with body parts produced via human cloning. These children are real flesh and blood in every way, except with a robotic brain. This cyber-brain is programmed with advanced artificial intelligence so that the child is able to truly think on his own. He is able to express joy and sorrow, grief and gladness, the full range of human emotions.

At Vacation Bible School (now called "Reverb"), Aidan, age eleven, came to see your great-grandson, the pastor. Aidan's parents are unbelievers, but he has been moved by the Gospel presentation given at the end of Reverb week. He cries in Pastor Joshua's office. In fact, he is convulsing in tears.

"I know I'm a sinner," he said to Pastor Joshua. "And I know that I deserve to go to hell." He continued through his sobbing, "I love Jesus, and I want to know Him. What must I do to be saved?"

Pastor Joshua stepped out of his office to confer with his Associate Pastor, Caleb.Josh's first instinct is to lead the boy to Christ.

"Josh, I don't know," Caleb said. "Yes, he has a human body, but his mind and heart are artificial. His brain is that of a robot."

Joshua replied, "Yes, but he's human, too-at least it sure seems so. His blood pumps, his heart beats, he sweats-and he thinks, makes choices, and feels. He even feels guilty!"

Caleb said, "Yes, but he's programmed to feel and to make choices-even though those choices are random."

Joshua responded, "But isn't it the randomness of those choices, and the ability to long for communion with God, the ability to know the conviction of sin-doesn't that mean something?" Joshua said, "I've been told my whole life to offer the Gospel to every repentant sinner. In my office there is a repentant sinner, and I don't know what to do."

Pastor Joshua walked back into his study to see the trembling boy in his study. Aidan was reading Pastor Joshua's Bible, an old King James Version that belonged to Josh's great-great grandmother. Aidan looked up from the Bible and said, "Does Jesus love me, Pastor? Did Jesus die for me? Can I be saved from this guilt and, like you said in your message, from sin and death and hell?"

Aidan looked up and asked, "Am I a real boy? And can I be a real Christian?"

Pastor Joshua said to Aidan, "I want you to stay here with Pastor Caleb for a few minutes while I teleport over to the nursing care facility so that I can talk with some one I think might know the answer to this."

Joshua sits by your bed, asking for help. "Should I lead him to Christ?" he asks. "Should I baptize him?"

What do you tell him?

While waiting for you to respond, Pastor Joshua organizes the stuff he brought with him-hastily grabbed as he walked out of his office. In his hand is the King James Bible that little Aidan was holding. The Bible falls open to John chapter three. Joshua notices that the red letters in the middle of the page are smudged by something. In verse sixteen, the word "whosoever" is almost illegible. The page buckles underneath where it is printed.

"Something's on my old Bible," Joshua says to you, as you think of how to answer his question. "Some kind of salty water stain, I don't…."

Joshua stops and looks up at you, with realization: The stain is from the tears of a crying seeker. And they sure look human to him.

Matt Papa Band

I'd been meaning to post this for a while....
I've found a new worship band I like: the Matt Papa Band. I actually heard them play at my school and then we've learned one of their songs for our band at church, which I am going to play guitar for. We haven't actually led worship yet, but we've been practicing.
Here's a link to his site:
www.mattpapa.com
The one we learned is "Unto the One"....a great song. Let me know what you guys think.

Marc <><

Rob Bell's Talk......

Rob Bell's tour that I went to was exciting but ultimately disappointing. The guy is a great and engaging teacher, period--better than anyone I think I've ever heard before. He spoke for almost two hours and had people attentive the entire time. Here's the basic jist of what he said, some of which I have issues with:
1. Human beings (from cave men on, people of all cultures) have formulated ideas about the divine (spirits, gods, whatever you want to call them).
2. Humans for centuries also pretty much unanimously tried to appease these gods through offerings, sacrifices, etc. The goal was to get them on "our side."
3. Bell says that this developed a "primal anxiety" in human beings in their perception of the divine--this constant wondering of whether their sacrifices were enough or whether they were working...Naturally this led to a continual raising of the stakes until people went so far as killing children and mutilating their own bodies.
4. This is the culture into which Yahweh spoke when He called out Abraham. But this God was different; He provided a sacrifice instead of having Abraham sacrifice Isaac. With this God, you could know where you stood in relation to Him through the law that He gave and the promises that He made.
5. This system became corrupted because Jewish leaders took power into their own hands. When Christ came along saying that something greater than this system had come along (namely Himself), they reacted by killing Him and eliminating the threat.
6. Christ's resurrection showed that something greater had indeed come. In His dying on the cross, we Christ as the greatest of all sacrifices, and we see the "reconciliation of all things" (Col. 1:20) to God. This was the phrase Bell kept using over and over--though he didn't really explain it.
7. Since we have been reconciled to God, we don't have to live with that same primal anxiety of wondering whether we please Him or where we stand with Him. We don't have to have a conscience that is torturing us and leading us into legalism.

Point 7 is so true and refreshing to be reminded of for me as a perfectionist. The manner in which Bell reminded me of this was very freeing. BUT, the way that he spoke about the cross was completely inadequate to me. He talked about us being "reconciled" but he didn't talk about us being separated--or being sinful at all. It was like he completely avoided the part of the gospel where we are to be convicted of our sin and repent of it....He just jumped to the peace and the freedom that we are to have.....It sounded like he believes all people are already right with God, forgiven, and at peace--that they just have to realize it. That, to me, is absurd and completely against much of the New Testament. But anyways.....The best way to sum it up is that he acted as if our greatest need as humans is to be freed from our conscience. In reality our greatest need is to be free from our guiltiness before God and the punishment we deserve for our sin. Our conscience should drive us to repentance first and then to rejoicing when we put our trust in Christ and turn from sin. The conscience isn't just to be cast off as some sort of "primal" hindrance that we can do without. I won't go on any longer....just wanted to vent a little.
I still like Rob Bell as a teacher in most things; but this was a little disturbing to me.