the tindog coffeehouse

When you read about the birth of Christ in the Bible, one thing becomes immediately clear: The story isn’t the same from gospel to gospel. In fact, two of the four gospels (Mark and John) don’t even mention it. And the accounts in Matthew in Luke differ greatly. So what gives? Can either writer be trusted, or is the story of a Savior born of a virgin simply a myth?

The gospel of Matthew (written by a Jew to a Jewish audience) starts by listing the ancestry of Jesus from Abraham through David and to Joseph, the earthly (though not biological) father of Jesus. Luke, on the other hand, (writing to a Gentile audience) traces Jesus’ ancestry all the way back to Adam but going to Mary, not Joseph. (Luke 3:23 says that Joseph was the son of Heli, but that was actually Mary’s father. Heli was Joseph’s father-in-law.) Matthew mentions an angel visiting Joseph, while Luke mentions the same angel visiting Mary. Luke also exclusively includes the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah (the parents of John the Baptist), Jesus being born in a manger in Bethlehem, the shepherds visiting the newborn, and Mary and Joseph dedicating Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. Matthew mentions none of those but instead includes the visit from the Magi, Mary and Joseph’s escape to Egypt, and their eventual return to Nazareth.

So what exactly are we to make of these discrepancies? Either they’re flat-out inaccurate and therefore can’t be trusted or they’re merely incomplete. And if they’re incomplete, the next question becomes why?

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Happy New Year! As you may have heard, the world is supposed to end this year, so, um, yeah…

Anyway, I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, but I am starting a new Bible reading plan today. I’ll be reading through all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) simultaneously in chronological order. Seminary-type folks call this the “harmony of the Gospels”, but to me that sounds like a southern church choir led by Aretha Franklin, so instead I’m referring to it as the Gospel Project.

Here’s how it works: I took the “harmony of the Gospels” chronology from my Life Application Study Bible and divided it up into 70 days. That works out to one reading assignment every weekday from now through Good Friday on April 6. I’ve left the weekends open in case I fall behind and need to catch up. Pretty easy, no?

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This is Part 9 of my chapter-by-chapter analysis of From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology by John Dyer.

By now we’ve seen numerous examples both the redeeming and corrupting potential of technology and how that relates to us as Christians. We’ve seen how God first commanded us to “cultivate” His creation in the Garden of Eden and how even after Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden, God continued to use technology to further His plans, from Noah’s Ark to the Ten Commandment to the Ark of the Covenant. And yet, there’s no question technology can be extremely destructive, allowing mankind to separate ourselves from our Creator as an act of rebellion.

So it’s not just redemption we need, it’s restoration. We don’t just need another coat of paint to cover up the flaws and defects of this city we’ve built, it needs to be demolished and replaced with a whole new one that’s perfect.

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Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, generated quite the firestorm last week when he declared Mormonism to be a cult. Speaking at the Value Voters Summit, he said, “I think Mitt Romney’s a good, moral man, but those of us who are born again followers of Christ should prefer a competent Christian. Rick Perry’s a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.”

Naturally, the media jumped on his comments, happily characterizing him as some backwoods Bible-thumper. A lot of Christian churches backpedaled, not willing to condemn the LDS Church. And Rick Perry himself, whom Jeffress had endorsed, quickly distanced himself from the pastor. When asked if Mormonism was a cult, Perry said without hesitation, “No.”

But the fact of the matter is, Dr. Jeffress is exactly right.

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Last September, our pastor challenged the church to read through the Bible in a year, something that for some reason I had never done. I had read much of the Bible but never the whole thing and never for a whole year straight. I decided it was time to change that, and so I took the challenge.

And three days ago, I finished it.

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It was like the day was burning
Everywhere he turned, he saw the fields on fire
Captive by the wire

Home fell like breaking china
Fear was the only thing they shared at all
Bearing every soul

Oh, give me rest tonite

– Hoi Polloi, “Rest Tonite”

Texas is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the state’s history and suffering through one of its hottest summers. Here in the DFW Metroplex, we racked up 40 days straight of triple-digit high temperatures in July and August, two days short of tying a record, and have so far had 57 days total over 100 degrees, with that number climbing daily. Further south, it’s much worse. Austin has already had 69 days of 100 degree-plus weather and much less rainfall. Losses in crops and livestock due to the drought have cost Texas $5.2 billion, and much of the state is under severe water restrictions.

And there’s no sign of relief any time soon. While the temperatures will eventually subside in a month or so, meteorologists are saying we’re probably in for another drier-than-normal La Niña winter. Which means things will probably get a lot worse before they get any better.

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