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It’s a bit over two months since I announced my engagement to Kristi (Hays) Carman, and we’re frequently asked about a wedding date.

That date has not yet been set, due to complications I would rather not post on a public site. Nonetheless, we are fully committed to the marriage, and continue to prepare, and pray that obstacles would be removed.

I want to add that through the complications, our relationship has only grown stronger, and the opportunity for Kristi to visit me in Grande Prairie last month caused our already-stable love to bloom into something even more wonderful. We look forward eagerly to our future together, and acknowledge that only God in His infinite wisdom and power could have brought us together.

Just a note that a small Brazilian publisher has requested to translate Feed My Lambs into Portuguese and publish it.

The arrangement has not yet been finalized. Stay tuned.

On Monday, April 26, 2010, Kristi (Hays) Carman and I expressed to each other that together we were home, and it became very clear that our lives belong together, including her seven dear children whom I love with all my heart.

We do not have a date set yet, as we have only begun to deal with logistical matters, some of which are pretty complex. You can certainly pray that we may find a way to make all of this happen before the year is out. I’m not a big believer in lengthy engagements, and even less so given the distance involved and the factor of children. (If you’re interested in learning how you can pray more specifically, feel free to contact me.)

I cannot express how grateful I am to God for bringing such a wonderful woman into my life. I am humbled by my own weaknesses, and elated by His grace. He truly gives us much better than we deserve.

The Westminster California types who see themselves as defenders of Reformed orthodoxy are adamant in making the view that the Mosaic law is “a republication of the covenant of works” a sine qua non of orthodoxy on justification.

Now, it so happens that I absolutely agree that there is a close relationship between Adam and Moses, although I think it’s wrongheaded to label this in terms of “covenant of works.” Biblically, these folks simply don’t “get” the nature of either the Adamic covenant or the Mosaic.

Nonetheless, Romans 5 teaches that Torah intensifies the Sin and death state brought on by the fall. The problem for West-Cal and their allies is that the primary Israel-fall depicted in Romans is the stumbling over Christ worked out from the end of Romans 9 and on into the first part of Romans 11. And of course, that won’t do, since the whole point is to posit a contrast to the new covenant, not a parallel (what I call a relational typology between the covenants that shows a fundamental shared structure).

In the midst of all of this, there is a genuine Adam issue that is getting snowed under by the avalanche of rhetoric: many of these “defenders of orthodoxy” have completely abandoned the biblical doctrine of six day creation and a young earth. If you want to ask where to locate the continental divide that threatens to throw not only Reformed niceties, but the whole Christian enterprise into the Pacific (what a coincidence), it is right here.

Why? Because denial of the biblical chronology is an attack on the coherence of a biblical view of Adam. Just ask any evolutionist Christian to talk about Adam and Eve. There are basically three choices: deny their historicity altogether; generalize them out of existence; or arbitrarily claim that humanoids evolved and that at some point God placed His image in a sufficiently evolved pair. But even such a concession as the latter cannot satisfy anyone if we were are going to take the New Testament’s Last Adam Christology seriously – much less if we are going to take Genesis seriously. Moreover, it’s not possible for such a view to stand the test of time – it’s leaning too far down a greased slope, and carries no weight exegetically or “scientifically.” (And yes, I place “scientifically” in quotation marks quite advisedly. When science claims to arbitrate authoritatively about the distant past, it is well beyond its bounds. It is no longer science but conjecture, and ultimately faith – sans revelation.)

The bottom line is that the growing cave-in to macro-evolution is an attack on the very foundations of Christianity. If the R. Scott Clarks of the Church want us to take them seriously as defenders of orthodoxy, they could at least start with hermeneutical principles that support rather than undermine orthodox Christology. You can’t have a covenant with an ahistorical person.

Get Genesis right, and then maybe we can talk.

Meanwhile, please excuse us if we laugh at your ranting while you try to strain out gnats and force us to swallow camels.

Okay, my history in calling these things isn’t necessarily all that great, but this is the way I see it:

EASTERN

Washington vs Montreal: Caps in six.

New Jersey vs Philadelphia: Flyers upset in six.

Buffalo vs Boston: Sabres in seven.

Pittsburgh vs Ottawa: Pens in six.

WESTERN

San Jose vs Colorado: Sharks in five.

Chicago vs Nashville: Hawks in six.

Vancouver vs Los Angeles: Canucks in five.

Phoenix vs Detroit: Wings in six.

Don’t bank on any of this.

One of the things my Dad did not do early on in his preaching ministry was take up collections. Occasionally someone gave him money out of the blue, but for the most part, he simply ministered gratis. From the beginning, he formed a habit of saving up a few hundred dollars, going out preaching until the money ran out, and then going back to work.

While at a few points in his life, Dad had his own handyman business, his one recurring employer was Argyle Machine Shop in Port Alberni, BC. (I think that is where he was working when he met my mother.)

There were a lot of interesting things about his history with Argyle, but one basic one was that he never joined the union in what was ostensibly a closed shop. How he accomplished that, I’m not sure, but he was opposed to it philosophically. The union shop steward perhaps countenanced it because Dad would do tasks that his union members probably would not. Read the rest of this entry »

At long last, my extensive essay on Paul and the law, These Are Two Covenants: Reconsidering Paul on the Mosaic Law, is available!

I was sort of commissioned to write this piece back in 2004, but the book in which it was to appear fell on hard times and was not published. I later had a contract with another publisher to have it released on its own, but it fell victim to cutbacks. Knowing that I do not have present resources to publish in paperback as I did with Feed My Lambs, I decided on my first ebook-only (PDF) release.

You can get more information and learn how to purchase by going to my Pactum Reformanda Publishing web site.

life had just begun
death came in the door
walkin in the sun
why’d you eat that for?

we may be tryin here
but we are cryin tears
mmm… we’re dyin here

finally had a son
from his barren wife
are we really done
cause now he takes a knife

we may be tryin here….

kingdom’s just begun
so began to seem
then all the soldiers come
and the disciples leave

we may be tryin here….

then in our fears
behind these walls
Life appears
the Lord of all

see His wounded side
those familiar eyes
yes it’s Him all right
now glorified

so here’s our death and sin
but we live in Him
mmm… and we’ll rise again

mmm… we’re livin here….

[Written Good Friday, 2010]

Okay, fellow Christ Covenant folk – as usual, I was in a fog when I did the bulletin. The Bible study this week (tomorrow evening) is not at my place; it’s at the Soles residence.

Be there, or be sawn asunder.

Okay, it’s official. Over the past couple of weeks I have been putting together a new business site that better represents the spectrum of my creative work.

I have been operating for a little over five years under the moniker of Pactum Web Services, a title borrowed from my publishing company that I formed in order to release Feed My Lambs. But that stopped making sense over the course of time; for one thing, I’m one person, and I would rather do creative work under my own name. At least as important, I do a lot more than web development now – I have designed logos; drafted print work such as letterhead, business cards, and even lawn signs; and I’ve jumped into custom imagery such as 3D characterization.

This little venture, begun as a small side income in January 2005, has grown a bit every year. As my mother has deteriorated and construction work has become unpredictable, I have more and more sought to make this primary for my income. It would be so beneficial for Mom if I can work from home full-time. Please pray that in 2010 this can happen.

So anyway: Pactum Web Services is no more. Tim Gallant Creative is at timgallantcreative.com. Take a look, join the mailing list, become a Facebook fan….

Okay, it’s official. Over the past couple of weeks I have been putting together a new business site that better represents the spectrum of my creative work.

I have been operating for a little over five years under the moniker of Pactum Web Services, a title borrowed from my publishing company that I formed in order to release Feed My Lambs. But that stopped making sense over the course of time; for one thing, I’m one person, and I would rather do creative work under my own name. At least as important, I do a lot more than web development now – I have designed logos; drafted print work such as letterhead, business cards, and even lawn signs; and I’ve jumped into custom imagery such as 3D characterization.

This little venture, begun as a small side income in January 2005, has grown a bit every year. As my mother has deteriorated and construction work has become unpredictable, I have more and more sought to make this primary for my income. It would be so beneficial for Mom if I can work from home full-time. Please pray that in 2010 this can happen.

So anyway: Pactum Web Services is no more. Tim Gallant Creative is at timgallantcreative.com. Take a look, join the mailing list, become a Facebook fan….

Simple rules… lead to complex behavior. Complex rules, as with the tax law in most countries, lead to stupid behavior.

For a couple weeks, I’ve had a few friends helping me beta test a new web site for Grande Prairie believers (adults 20 and up). Now it seems ready to go live:

http://grandeprairiechristian.com/

The idea here is to help local believers expand their social circles and get to know fellow Christians from the neighbourhood. Introduce yourself online with a profile, get to know one another by participating in forums and chatrooms – but don’t leave it there; once you’ve made new friends, since the whole constituency will be local, you can make arrangements to get together in real life.

So if you’re (1) a Grande Prairie area resident; (2) at least 20 years old; and (3) a Christian – please join up and join in!

Interesting application for adding pie graphs to your web page without building your own graphic.

Dear _______,

Thank you for your concern regarding HTN1, which is apparently a Technological variant of H1N1 (also dubbed “influnetza”). We assure you, the pandemic is of grave concern to all of us.

We have been in contact with our host, and have been assured that all of the component parts of each server are taken out daily and scrubbed with soap and water. This has had only a minor affect on uptime.

You asked whether we could provide a numerical IP address in case parts of the internet shut down. You should know that IP addresses are in fact most vulnerable to the pandemic, moreso than domain names. This is because there are only ten numbers, while there are twenty-six letters; thus the pandemic spreads easier. We have been lobbying the U.S. government for some time for a larger spectrum of numbers to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, we are  extensively masking domains. Unfortunately, this still leaves the problems of domain propagation undealt with, and there is always the threat of proliferation due to the common practice of “forwarding.”

To date, we do not believe our sites have been affected, although it can be hard to discern, as computer use invariably involves headaches at the best of times.

We prepare for the worst case scenario, of course. We are aware that hacking is very hard on the system, and once that level is reached, a “hands-off” approach is no longer appropriate.

Thank you once again for your concern. Please be assured that, as long as we are healthy, we will do all we can to keep our corner of the internet running.

Yours sincerely,
_____________

Yes, a Christmas Day launch (of sorts – my official launch took place rather late in the evening).

http://www.changeinthewind.ca

For various reasons, I have recently had occasion to start thinking about matters related to sociopolitical issues.

On a couple earlier occasions in my life, first as a late teen (when I actually contemplated going to university to major in Political Science) and then later when I was in my Reconstructionist period, politics were very high on my interest list. But when, for exegetical/biblical-theological reasons, I moved away from Reconstructionism/theonomy about a decade or so ago, I largely stepped away from those concerns.  I suppose part of that was due to the fact that, upon moving away from a directly theonomic approach, I wasn’t entirely sure how to think about politics.

I certainly do not claim now to have all the answers, but this new site is aimed at becoming an educational/discussion resource to help Canadian (in particular) Christians work through what we should be aiming for on a sociopolitical level,  as well as to help stimulate ideas for how we can serve our country on a less directly political level.

The site features four main sections: (1) Articles section dealing with various matters of principle, policy, values, etc; (2) Special features section for focusing on current events; (3) Categorized links library to help Christians find valuable articles etc around the web, as well as other web sites; and (4) a blog for keeping up conversation and commenting on current events or whatever. I am hoping to draft a few more contributors, as well.

At this point, the articles section has four articles available, dealing with foundational matters as well as economics and a summary piece on marriage/family/sexuality. There are a couple of substantive posts on the blog, and the links library has a modest beginning. As of yet, there are no special features on current events.

Anyway, do check it out, and pass on the news.

Another serious security hole has been uncovered, and no patch is currently available:

Read the alert.

… and the workarounds either don’t work or can’t be performed as Microsoft themselves explain them.

Someday, I’ll have to create a list of the handiest free utilities I’ve used. One of these definitely has to be CutePDF. While there is a Pro version (49.95), since I have Acrobat Professional, I just use the freeware. What’s great about it is that you simply use it like an alternative printer, and instead of printing on paper, it saves a .pdf file. (It’s much simpler than Acrobat’s Distiller.)

This convenience came into play again for me today. One of my clients was attempting to send me floorplans. Trouble was, the only image file type their floorplan app would save to was .bmp… and it was doing something to the .bmp file so that, while the bitmap would open nicely in the program itself, the image was just a black box everywhere else.

So I had my client download CutePDF and print from the floorplan app. Bingo. Nicely optimized to send me via email (all the files saved at between 25kb and 70kb each). I opened them up in Acrobat, saved them as PNG files, and presto! I can display them as is.

Here is an introductory set of tips that I am working on for safer, smarter web browsing and email use, including being a good “web citizen.” Many of these ought to be common sense, or would be if we all thought about things. As a web developer and a bit of a “power user,” I’ve had more opportunity to think about them than most. Please check it out and make sure you’re not unwittingly being foolish or even contributing to “the problem.”

My new adventure in business is up and running.

I’m quite excited about this concept. Now for the work of getting the word out.

Evangelical defeatism is a failure of Biblical perspective. After all, the risen Lord Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and has been made head over all things for the Church; he is the ruler of the kings of the earth and he is currently putting his enemies beneath his feet; he has presumably asked the Father for the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession – and so he will receive them. All nations will bow to Jesus and all kings will serve him and his kingdom will grow to become the largest plant in the garden with the nation-birds finding rest in its branches. His kingdom is the stone which crushed the kingdoms of men in Daniel 2 and which is growing to become a mountain-empire which fills the whole earth. He is the firstborn from among the dead and therefore it is right that in all things he has the first place. He has been highly exalted and not only will every knee bow to him but every knee should bow to him.

Evangelical defeatism is a failure of historical perspective. After all, the statistics are out there. It took 1400 years for 1% of the world’s population to become Christians and then another 360 years for that to double to 2%. Another 170 years saw that grow from 2% to 4% and then, between 1960 and 1990 the proportion of the world’s population made up of Bible-believing Christians rose from 4% to 8%. Now, in 2007, one third of the world’s population confesses that Jesus is Lord and 11% of the world’s population are “evangelical” Christians. The evangelical church is growing twice as fast as Islam and three times as fast as the world’s population. South America is turning Protestant faster than Continental Europe did in the sixteenth century. South Koreans reckon that they can evangelize the whole of North Korea within five years once that country opens up. And then there’s the Chinese church consisting of tens of millions of Christians who have learned to pray, who have confidence in Scripture, who know about spiritual warfare, have been schooled in suffering and are qualified to rule. One day in the next century that Church – tens of millions of Christians trained to die – will be released into global mission and our prayers for the fall of Islam will be answered.

David Field, “Samuel Rutherford and the Confessionally Christian State”

Just a note that a small Brazilian publisher has requested to translate Feed My Lambs into Portuguese and publish it.

The arrangement has not yet been finalized. Stay tuned.

Hays definitely lies to my left theologically, but I have often found him spot-on, and he has some excellent insights here. I would especially draw attention to the matter of seeking to “get at” a story “behind” the text rather than dealing with how the material actually comes to us in the biblical canon, e.g. The Prodigal Son. (Pay special attention about 60% of the way through, where Hays deals with the unique and harmonizing voices of the Gospel writers.)

At long last, my extensive essay on Paul and the law, These Are Two Covenants: Reconsidering Paul on the Mosaic Law, is available!

I was sort of commissioned to write this piece back in 2004, but the book in which it was to appear fell on hard times and was not published. I later had a contract with another publisher to have it released on its own, but it fell victim to cutbacks. Knowing that I do not have present resources to publish in paperback as I did with Feed My Lambs, I decided on my first ebook-only (PDF) release.

You can get more information and learn how to purchase by going to my Pactum Reformanda Publishing web site.

life had just begun
death came in the door
walkin in the sun
why’d you eat that for?

we may be tryin here
but we are cryin tears
mmm… we’re dyin here

finally had a son
from his barren wife
are we really done
cause now he takes a knife

we may be tryin here….

kingdom’s just begun
so began to seem
then all the soldiers come
and the disciples leave

we may be tryin here….

then in our fears
behind these walls
Life appears
the Lord of all

see His wounded side
those familiar eyes
yes it’s Him all right
now glorified

so here’s our death and sin
but we live in Him
mmm… and we’ll rise again

mmm… we’re livin here….

[Written Good Friday, 2010]

It’s interesting that a lot of evangelical churches do stress participation in worship. But usually they don’t mean participation which everyone can engage in (and certainly not all at once, i.e. together). They mean “doing something at the front” – e.g. a skit, playing an instrument etc. It’s not said directly, but to be part of the congregation is not considered participatory.

What therefore happens is that the congregation becomes an audience, and inclusion in “the action” requires getting up on stage (and yes, that is actually what the platform is frequently referred to as, which I think is telling). But all this means is that (1) people are performing, many of whom aren’t really qualified to lead worship in a meaningful way; and (2) those not semi-skilled enough to do that are essentially non-participants; they are “outside the action.”

But worship is something that the whole congregation actively does, and giving bit parts “at the front” is a poor substitute for understanding that “the action” doesn’t happen on stage. The action occurs within the dialogue between God and all His people. When the proclamation of forgiveness, the sermon, and the benediction are given, that is God’s time to speak, and we all engage in hearing Him; when we pray, sing, and confess our faith, it is our time to speak, and He hears us. And when we commune, we eat together with one another and with God. In short, biblically speaking, we are all involved in the action, and for the whole properly-ordered service.

Just an observation triggered by a blog comment by my friend Rogers, as well as by a discussion we had last night in Bible study.

New post on the Biblical Horizons blog on 2 Corinthians 5.21.

In looking again at Leviticus 8, I noticed that in the baptism>anointing sequence, only Aaron gets anointed at first. Then, after the sin offering and ascension offerings are completed, not only Aaron but also his sons are anointed.

That fascinates me in connection with the sequence of things in the Gospels and Acts. Jesus is baptized by John and immediately anointed by the Spirit. But while many others are baptized, both by John and by Jesus’ disciples, no one else gets anointed.

Jesus becomes the sin offering on the cross and completes His role of ascension offering when He ascends to heaven. It is only then, after the completion of the sin and ascension offerings, that He pours out the Spirit and the “sons” are anointed.

One of Peter Leithart’s chief insights is that a priest is a palace servant.

In preparing a sermon on Lord’s Day 12 for this Sunday (by way of Revelation 1 – which, by the way, focuses upon God’s people as servants in 1.1 and as a priesthood in 1.7), this got me reflecting on the question of how the high priest relates to this. If a priest is a palace servant, what is a “high” palace servant?

This in turn led me to think about the predominant Servant theme in Isaiah, a rabbit trail that turned out to be helpful, although I’m not entirely sure yet where to go with it. Read the rest of this entry »

I suggest a moratorium on new Christmas hymns, until we all learn the Magnificat and the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis so much by heart that they seep out our fingers at the keyboard, until we instinctively sing of Jesus’ birth like Mary, like Zecharias, like Simeon.

Another gem from Leithart.