Aspiring PolyMathis

Yes if your faith is in the person and work of Chr...

2011-09-15T09:26:21.401-06:00

Yes if your faith is in the person and work of Christ.

So, can I have Christ without calling myself a &qu...

2011-09-15T01:43:37.432-06:00

So, can I have Christ without calling myself a "Calvinist"?

I happened upon your blog this evening and am quit...

2011-08-27T20:21:06.532-06:00

I happened upon your blog this evening and am quite excited to peruse through it over the coming days, and have added you on my google reader feed. Surprisingly, I had not heard the term polymathis before stumbling upon your website (thanks for the definition) but find myself obliged to inform you of my immediate affinity for the term. I hope you will forgive me for not mentioning greenspan in this comment.

Zack Day

outstanding. re-posted. thanks!

2011-08-19T14:41:34.255-06:00

outstanding. re-posted. thanks!

Fascinating and thought-provoking. Is it any wonde...

2011-06-08T10:56:28.645-06:00

Fascinating and thought-provoking. Is it any wonder that so many people in our culture hate the thought of suffering of any kind, whether from "natural disasters" or bodily woes or from any other type. If only we could "wish" them away.

Thanks for the post.

Great point. And what about the "potential&q...

2011-05-02T17:42:45.441-06:00

Great point. And what about the "potential" reaction of the Muslim community? Why didn't that prevent us from exercising our "right" to take military action? Ridiculously inconsistent thinking.

Got it--thanks.

2011-04-28T13:32:12.723-06:00

Got it--thanks.

I think there is a missing link, pardon the pun. I...

2011-04-28T11:19:01.807-06:00

I think there is a missing link, pardon the pun. I wanted to read more but the address under "here" is not working. Thought you should know.

LOL! That was great. Loved the wife tattling on th...

2011-04-09T15:24:59.163-06:00

LOL! That was great. Loved the wife tattling on the 9.5% tither and maintaining unity, "the old fashioned way." Funny, but probably way too true for some PD Churches.

Shawn Thanks for taking the time to respond. I ap...

2011-04-08T10:38:43.414-06:00

Shawn

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate that you actually read and interacted with what I wrote!

I will admit I am not sure what "chockablock" is (although it sounds like a yummy breakfast cereal) but a definition of something as amorphous and difficult to define as "the institional church" is necessarily going to include many assumptions and be tinged with bias, just as those who defend the IC are likewise biased.

My definition of the institutional church is designed to compare and contrast the prevailing forms of church gatherings by proposing two polar opposites, the institutional (or traditional) church model and the simple/organic/house church model. All gatherings of Christians fit somewhere on a spectrum. Even the most loosely organized simple church will have some organization to it and even the most staid institutional church will defy the definition in some ways.

I stand by my assertion of an overemphasis on the Sunday morning gathering as not mere assumption but observed behavior. There is a great deal more to the Westminster definition of the visible church than what you listed. To wit:

II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.

III. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and does, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.

IV. This catholic Church has been sometimes more, sometimes less visible. And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.

Notice that especially in defining the visible church in a way that ordinarily salvation is impossible outside of it and the focus in section 3 on the clergy and section 4 on the rituals, we see more of what I find objectionable in the IC and likewise to be holdovers from Rome.

Even the section you referenced regarding worship appeals to a "worship is for all places but especially on Sunday" mentality with a Sabbatarian impulse that sees Sunday as a special holy day in XXI, 7 & 8, where we see an arbitrary decision to transform the Jewish Sabbath into "The Lord's Day".

My larger concern has to do less with the defintion of the IC and what I and many others see as the impact of the traditional view of church, i.e. an authoritarian clergy, a passive laity, an emphasis on rituals and traditions and an unhealthy division between Sunday morning and the rest of the week.

Seriously? Does it all boil down to that? I'...

2011-04-05T10:52:42.010-06:00

Seriously? Does it all boil down to that? I'm honestly asking. I listen to the news and something wells up inside me saying, "yes, the strong power of the US must step in to stop another leader from killing his own peacefully protesting citizens..."
Am I wrong to think that way? HELP! :)

PM - did you see this? http://allthyngs.wordpress...

2011-03-04T14:44:13.519-07:00

PM - did you see this?

http://allthyngs.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/michael-moore-on-wealthy-peoples-money-thats-not-theirs-thats-a-national-resource-its-ours/

I thought for sure I'd swing over to your blog today and find some thoughtful commentary on this one...:) it's not too late, brother!

Speaking of gov't....I look forward to hearing...

2011-01-14T10:24:55.909-07:00

Speaking of gov't....I look forward to hearing/reading your thoughts about the Illinois state income and corporate tax hikes. A necessary evil to balance the budget or an invitation to Illinois residents and businesses to leave the state and go somewhere they can afford to live and do business?

grace to you, brother!
paul(one of your CaffCalv brothers)

Very Interesting!

2011-01-04T17:54:24.823-07:00

Very Interesting!

Sad. But does reflect the reality of the approach...

2010-12-29T06:44:27.788-07:00

Sad. But does reflect the reality of the approach of modern American Evangelicalism.

Greetings, Wittgenstein has rightly observed that...

2010-12-18T08:46:51.528-07:00

Greetings,

Wittgenstein has rightly observed that our worldview nets only capture fish bigger than the holes of the net.

The modern scientific nets never capture the Christian evidence because it is ruled out from the beginning.

On the other hand, they usually do not understand what we mean by evidence: the mere act of reasoning, being and knowing are evidence of a Creator for such acts presuppose an omniscience and omnipotent Triune God.

[see God: The Failed Hypothesis, a Review, here:
http://www.examiner.com/christian-apologetics-in-denver/god-the-failed-hypothesis-a-review-part-1 ]

The fact there is no evidence at all of the existe...

2010-12-17T20:07:31.485-07:00

The fact there is no evidence at all of the existence of any gods is all that's needed for the disbelief to be considered skeptical.

Ok, so we LOVE this song in our house. Even funni...

2010-12-09T13:23:47.067-07:00

Ok, so we LOVE this song in our house. Even funnier? We went and saw Tim Hawkins a few weeks ago and well before he came out, the MC had announced that there was a MI State Senator in the audience. Tim comes out an hour later and sings this song. I don't think he knew. It was classic!

"Who can be a failuuuuuuuuuuuure? In so many waaaaaaaaaaaays?" lol

I don't have cable either. A friend sends this...

2010-11-05T15:09:52.193-06:00

I don't have cable either. A friend sends this stuff my way.

I am thinking about subscribing to that website though. Short of regeneration by the Spirit, all we have is knowledge to pass on, hoping some biblical sense will sink into the American populace.

Awesome video. What in the world runs across the ...

2010-11-05T13:57:14.396-06:00

Awesome video. What in the world runs across the upper left hand corner of the camera lens at 5:07? That looked like a big cockroach or centipede!

I don't have cable so I don't catch MSNBC, but aren't they predominately liberal? This show seemed to have a good solid economic position.

amazing. If you click through to Youtube you can ...

2010-10-19T19:31:07.578-06:00

amazing. If you click through to Youtube you can watch all three(more?) parts of the whole show. It's amazing to see the diversity within the Islamic community. Good to see Franklin Graham taking a stand on there and saying from the beginning there (sadly) what his father missed on Larry King a few years ago. Thanks for sharing!

heart warming, nay, down to the cockle-warming (wh...

2010-10-11T23:04:43.671-06:00

heart warming, nay, down to the cockle-warming (whatever those are)

Your welcome. If you do re-blog, please link to my...

2010-09-08T16:52:52.153-06:00

Your welcome. If you do re-blog, please link to my examiner.com article as well.

Wow. Great little article. Very thought provokin...

2010-09-08T14:25:29.313-06:00

Wow. Great little article. Very thought provoking.
Thank you for putting this together! I might have to re-blog some of it over on my site.
grace to you!

Good stuff. Thank you. I'll be looking into ...

2010-07-30T10:09:48.412-06:00

Good stuff. Thank you. I'll be looking into this material.

Have you (or anyone out there) used any material to home teach using the Trivium approach? Maybe you have some places you can point me to look further into material we can use to incorporate the Trivium into our schooling.

Thanks!