Guitar Chords for Carols

I have easy guitar chords for 10 popular carols on my chords site

Mobile phones are safe

Phew

Retro-Toys

Some old toys are making a comeback

Julie & Julia

Saw this last night with the girl at The Orpheum. It was pretty good, though a little long... Hoping to check out Zombieland soon, though I'm guessing that will be a girl-less night...

Kristina Keneally is a fairly outspoken Catholic

Just like Tony Abbott. I wonder if she will cop as much grief for her faith as he has? 

Loud is on 2nite

Check out Dave's posts - http://davemiers.com/tag/loud/

Here's some video of her

I'm guessing she's had coaching for her accent - you can hear her fighting the US twang. She is just 40 years old.

Kristina Keneally is NSW's first female premier

No, I'd never heard of her either. Turns out she was born in the US and was educated there - I wonder if she has an accent? Her husband is the nephew of Thomas Keneally, one of Australia's finest authors. 

Unpacking Forgiveness

Sandy gives a teaser of a book I am keen to read -

Its critical insight is that despite what so many blithely claim, forgiveness is not unconditional! Brauns begins with this simple but profound principle: "God expects believers to forgive others in the way that he forgave them" (p. 44).

For example, Colossians 3:13 speaks of "bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (my emphasis). Furthermore, God does not forgive us without our repentance (e.g. Acts 20:21).

Likewise, human forgiveness is not automatic. The key verse here is Luke 17:3: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him" (NIV, my emphasis). So we do not offer 'cheap grace' to people who refuse to acknowledge sin. Of course, we may still act in loving and kind ways towards them, though they be our enemies. Yet we are not obliged to pretend all is okay.

Baptise those babies!

My latest blog for SA

Congratulations!

Congrats to HH, also soon to be a dad...

Acts 29 Oz

Ben writes a very constructive review of their first Boot Camp on the Sola Panel. This review has already been widely linked, and will strongly influence how Acts 29 are perceived in SydAng land...

Congratulations!

Congrats to Luke & Amy, expecting their first child. Well done guys!

Dating the Gospels II

I mentioned below the dates of the earliest manuscript fragments of the gospels. But what about the earliest complete copies? These are contained in the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, both dated to around 350AD. This means that these copies come 200+ years after the original documents, but in manuscript terms this is considered very good. For comparison, the earliest complete manuscript we have for Caesar's Gallic Wars was created over 1000 years after the original, and other ancient documents have similar time spans.

How to live longer

Nathan linked to this very interesting list. In summary, to maximise your lifespan, you should -

1. Drive the biggest car you can afford

2. Never drive a quad ATV

3. Never cycle or jog on public roads

4. Never pilot a plane or helicopter (unless you are a professional)

5. Flee from any group of intoxicated males

6. Never throw accelerant on a fire or grill

7. Never dive into water

8. Never climb onto your house roof

9. If over 65, never move house

10. Never get into a car or car boot at gunpoint

11. End any professional/personal relationship that exhausts you emotionally

12. Never play the lottery

The Liberal Trainwreck

This has been pretty interesting to watch. It seems pretty likely that Hockey will be taking up the reigns in a few days/weeks. Despite his theological confusion, I like him and think he will be a good leader. Turnbull will not stick around on the backbench, he will be gone before the next election. If the coalition go to the electorate on an anti-ETS platform, they may well get some traction. My gut feeling is that most Australians want to reduce emissions, but they are unwilling to endure any real pain to achieve that. Energy costs are already soaring in NSW - very few people will be willing to cop an extra $1100+ year for the privilege of an ETS.

Oh, and I really liked this comment from Cory Bernardi (Liberal senator) on what the Libs should stand for -

"We are a party of smaller government, lower taxation, supporting families and free enterprise...any loss of support for conservative parties [around the world] has been driven by a lack of implementation of conservative principles."

Exactly right - that's why the Republicans have been toasted in the US - because the neo-cons were big-government, spend-like-a-drunken-sailor types...

When to do good

My latest piece on SA

Tick Tick Tick

Turbull appears to be living on borrowed time

Ropes Crossing Church Supporters Evening

You are invited to

Ropes Crossing Church Supporters Evening

Saturday 28th November 7:30pm for 8:00pm

at St Marys Anglican Church -Small Hall

Corner Magdalene St & Great Western Highway, St Marys

 

RSVP 26th November to

office AT stmarysanglican DOT info

 

More information at:

http://www.ropescrossingchurch.anglican.asn.au/

Climate Change Consensus

People sometimes speak about the remarkable scientific consensus in the area of anthropogenic climate change. These documents may shed some light on the consensus. (h/t Gordo)

Dating the Gospels

When were the gospels written? This is an important question when it comes to assessing the historicity of the documents. The earlier the date, the more confidence we may have in the information recorded. This whole area has been pretty contentious for a long time, although even the conservative and the radical agree to dates within a few decades of each other now. Not that big a difference, really.

How do we determine when the gospels were written? Well, they all record the death of Jesus, which occurred around 30AD - so obviously they were written after that date. At the other end of the scale, our earliest complete copies of the gospels are several hundred years after this, but we have fragments of each of the gospels that are much earlier. Our earliest fragment of Matthew is Papyrus 104, which is dated to around 150AD. For Mark it is Papyrus 45, dated to around 250AD. Our earliest fragment of Luke is Papyrus 75, dated from around 175AD. And our earliest fragment of John is Papyrus 52, dated as early as 117AD.

To summarise, the manuscript evidence alone gives us the following "latest dates" for the gospels -

Matthew - 150AD

Mark - 250AD

Luke - 175AD

John - 117AD

But there is more to consider, which I'll share in another post.

The Gospels & History

A generation ago, the historicity of the gospels was a hot topic with skeptics. Apologists like Josh McDowell wrote popular books on the subject, which sold like hot cakes. Then post-modernism took a grip, and no-one really cared very much about historicity anymore. But I've seen some recent indications that this is changing, and that the historicity question is becoming a live topic once again. Christians really need to be across this stuff again. The great difference to a generation ago is that now we have the internet, and heaps of the source material is now online. Interesting times ahead...

NT Papyri

Wiki has a comprehensive list of New Testament papyri. 

A safe God for politicians

Only just read this piece by Phillip Jensen in the Herald. It is excellent. 

An Education

Took the girl to see this last night. Very well crafted film, and (for once) a solid moral message as well...