The Mind of Querns

I keep hearing everyone ( Christians ) getting nervous about our president and the decisions that he has been making with regards to our economy and our way of life. They are saying that he is a socialist and that he is going to drive our nation into even more debt; that he is un -American (which cannot be possible). So I have been thinking about this a bit and had a conversation with my friend which sparked a few thoughts. First of all you should read my post entitled "I pledge allegiance to the flag.........." and you will get further insight into this topic. Let dig into the foundation of why Christians are saying these things about our president. As stated in past posts, for the most part Christians support that which America does to fullest without much questioning, especially after the fact. This means that democracy must be the way that God wants us to have government.... and so on (read my prior post). Pertaining to this post, this means that God wants us to have a ...

It has been a few months since I posted anything. I have been contemplating a few things. About 3 months ago (around the time I stopped posting) I met with Pastor Tim from our church. We talked about a bunch of things, and it was a very positive and thought provoking conversation, also the breakfast sandwiches were delicious. We talked about a lot of the things that I post on here, and we disagreed on a bunch of things, however it was exactly what I wanted this blog to be.... responsible and productive. One of the main take-aways that I took from the meeting was something that Pastor Tim talked about. He had been given a piece of writing that works with behavioral sciences and The Bible. The title of the article is "Idols of the Heart and "Vanity Fair"" by David Powlison . Much of what it says was condensed down into an auto-biographical story from Pastor Tim. He also warned me of something that he struggled with when he was younger and in seminary like I am. H...

This is my answer to the last post I made. Like I said I think that the so what question is the most important one I asked. I will then focus on that portion for the most part. First, I suppose it is obvious that I am a Christian, which in my mind means "a follower of Jesus". Many people would say that a Christian is "one who believes in Jesus". I find that to be insufficient and leads to the lukewarm Christianity that turns so many people off..... is that correct Harry? To explain what I mean read what follows. First of all, Belief is something that involves a self understanding that is really just a conclusion that something is real or true. Just so I am being clear, I believe in Jesus.... mostly because a lot of historical evidence (and that is not just Biblical, but also through ancient historians like Josephus), my own personal experience (which you can refute in your mind if you want), and I suppose a certain portion has to do with my upbringing. Beyond co...

Now this post won't seem as exciting as others I have posted, but you will see as it all plays out why I did this the way I did. To come out with it plainly, I would like to take this oppurtunity to ask the readers here what their beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth are. I am sure all of our views are different. This could make some of you uncomfortable. I know that there are non-Christians reading this, so remember that this is to be a respectable discussion, in order to move forward we must learn from one another. We Christians seem to be the most judgmental when it comes to this. So, what do you believe about Jesus? What does he teach you? What is his significance? More importantly, I find that the "So What?" question is the most important. That question means... so, you believe all these things about Jesus...... So what? So what does that do for you? So what does that change about your life? So what does that mean for everything, and so what is the point? I hav...

Before I get into the topic of this post, I want to say I'm sorry for bugging everyone by trying to get you all to post on here. Like I have said, it is my favorite thing to do theology, so I get passionate about it. I am just going to keep posting and assume someone is listening, so pleaase sit back and enjoy. I have also been told that I should start podcasting with my web cam...... I'll think about it.... (this one is going to be another long one which has many layers) Within the past decade there has been a lot of fighting between Christians and the rest of the United States about taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance. I am not sure how seriously any of you have debated this, but I have always just listened with intrigue to all sides. I understand both sides and never really cared about the issue that much...... until recently. I may have taken interest in a far different way than I have heard anyone else talk about though. Point number 1 : "You shall have no o...

Baptism was a good topic...... haven't studied it too much but it looks like my post was rather long, haha. Last night I had a bonfire out back with a few friends. We were discussing a few things. I had told one of them about a theory about something that happened in the garden of eden and we debated it last night with another friend, it was a good time. So, I guess I'll post it here and see what everyone else thinks. So, In Genesis God told adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's easy. at that point there was no Eve. The Bible never said that God told eve the rule about the fruit of the tree, so I assume that adam probably told her. When the serpent tempted eve with the fruit however, eve does not quite the rule correctly. She doesn't just say she's not allowed to eat the fruit from that tree, she tells the serpant that they are not even allowed to touch the tree. I assume that adam told eve that changed rule just to make s...

First of all, I am a Christian and therefore I try to learn from Jesus of Nazareth, and I try to follow what he suggests we follow.Jesus commands us to be baptized and to baptize. So what does this mean for us? Paul, in Romans 6 connects baptism with death to sin. Baptized people then have died and have been raised and set free from the chains of sin. We can then be presented as instruments of righteousness (6:13). Each of these instruments of righteousness is then a member of a single body which is that of Christ.I feel that at this point I must say that as with much of Christian teaching today, the point has been lost. Not because baptism doesn't still perform the task God set it to do, but because we are not fullfilling our obligation to become members of the one body. There are many things that come into play here. First, we use Baptism as more of something which is used to witness to a persons commitment to Jesus..... When in fact baptism is about Christ's commitment to us...