Trost's blog
I’ve frequently admired the writings of The Ochlophobist, even if they make me painfully aware of the gaps in my classical knowledge.
His writing during this year’s Dormition fast is no exception, linked without trite commentary:
Much ink, physical and virtual (including on this site), has been spilt discussing, making light of, or just plain despairing over the modern American obsession with the “end times”. An obsession American evangelical Christianity seems intent on infecting the rest of the world with.
Even if one discards the recent theology or paradigm of dispensationalism, it’s still easy to get hung up on, well the end of all things.
Whether or not the issue is even applicable to Christians can boil down into another one of those interesting divides of what we believe versus what we say we believe. One of the most profound experiences for me of the past year is coming to grips with the implications of things I had supposedly professed all my life. Continue reading...
I didn’t intend on making a couple posts and disappearing into the aether for months. To say this summer has been long and strenuous would be an understatement. I do have some reflections to write up, but those will have to wait until I can attempt to do them a bare minimum of justice.
In the meantime, some brief thoughts concerning current reading materials. Most of us who “grew up goddy” cut our teeth on the Picture Bible, among other things. We were saturated in the Bible, read it, heard sermons of it, did studies in it. That said, I’ve come to realize much modern Christian understanding of the Bible is a mile wide and an inch deep. We’ll hand it to unbelievers and tell them to read it when we don’t even know how to deal with much of it ourselves. The Old Testament comes to mind. Continue reading...
Wouldn’t your youth group been at least 125% better if it had had one of these names?
10. Defenders of Ai
9. Mission: Apostleble
8. The Convictkids
7. Dort
6. iPles
5. 7th Bowl
4. Sola Deo Volleyball
3. Grace 2008: Student Edition
2. Eschaton
1. Thunderdome
Just imagine the retreat t-shirts.
I grew up goddy. To be sure, I never reached such august heights as co-hosting an episode of the 700 Club, that’s an impossible act to follow. But I grew up deeply steeped in American Evangelical Christianity. Vacation Bible School? Check. Being on the vanguard of the home-school movement complete with science curriculum that thought Young Earth Creationism was the result of proper Bible interpretation and scientific observation? Check. Not being in the Boy Scouts but the far more obscure Christian Service Brigade? Check. Doing a post high-school Youth With a Mission “Discipleship Training School”? Check. Moving to California at age 20 and joining a safe non-denominational church out of habit? Check. Spending several years being a junior high youth group leader, in part driven by my own poor experiences in such groups? Well, now we’re heading off the checklist. We’ll also leave out the part about starting to volunteer in said role, way back when, to try and get to know a cute girl, as that transcends both religion and culture (and it also never works). Continue reading...