Clarification: I Haven’t Entered the Jewelry Business

I’ve been alerted that people have been getting posts from The Fool’s Gold about jewelry-related issues. I wanted to give a brief update to let you know what is going on.

First, you can rest assured that I haven’t entered the jewelry market. I have spectacularly little interest in sterling silver rings and putting charms inside of a wedding cake.

Second, my blog hasn’t been hacked. I used to own the domain name www.thefoolsgold.net. Back in April I let my ownership of that domain expire because I wasn’t intending to continue posting. My guess is that someone has purchased that domain name since then and begun posting his or her own content.

The problem is that if you subscribed to The Fool’s Gold while I owned the domain www.thefoolsgold.net, you will get the posts from this new blog in your reader. Now, you may be interested in the jewelry industry and wish to maintain your subscription to stay on top of the market, but I imagine for most of you unsubscribing altogether would do the trick.

The content I posted in the past is still available at http://thefoolsgold.wordpress.com/ if you’d still like to check it out.

I hope this helps clear up any questions. Sorry for the confusion!

A Farewell Post

My last post was on March 16. That’s over a month ago. I figured that it would be a good thing to update you briefly on what’s been going on in my life and what my plans are for The Fools Gold.

My Life
At the beginning of February I began a part-time position at Bethlehem’s South Site. I’ve been brought on to help with some administrative responsibilities and other tasks as they are assigned. It’s been a wonderful experience. I feel like I’ve been exposed to a ton of things I had no clue about before. God has been very kind and has given me a delightful bunch of people to work with.

The consequence of working part-time and continuing in my studies is that it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a consistent presence at The Fool’s Gold. This brings me to my next point.

My Plans
Because of the factors listed above (along with other commitments) I have decided not to continue updating the blog. The domain at thefoolsgold.net will expire April 30. However, for the time being I plan to keep the blog on the web along with already existing content for anyone who is interested in visiting. You will be able to view the blog by going to thefoolsgold.wordpress.com.

I do hope to continue blogging at the Fighter Verses blog. Feel free to stop by and say hi.

It has been a delight to blog over the past months and to be encouraged by your visits and comments. My desire for all of you is that you would know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible you may attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).

Grace be with you all,
Johnathon

Sunday Is Not the Sabbath

I recently had to write a paper on whether or not Sabbath observance is binding for new covenant believers today. I want to share two quotes with you that I found to be useful in forming my persuasion:

The first is by Andrew Shead from an article on “Sabbath” in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology:

We have said nothing about the Christian Sunday since we are convinced that there is no theological connection between Sabbath and Sunday, despite occasional attempts to prove the contrary (e.g. R. T. Beckwith and W. Stott, This Is the Day). There are hints in the NT that the first day of the week was set aside for evening worship, including the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2); Revelation 1:10 refers to “the Lord’s Day”. There is, however, absolutely no indication either that the “first day” replaced the “Sabbath day” in practice (the first Jewish [750] Christians continued to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath), or that there was a transfer of Sabbath theology to Sunday worship. The Sabbath was a day of rest rather than a day of worship, and Sunday became a day of worship but was not initially a day of rest. Regularity, for which the seven-day week provided a ready-made framework, distinguishes (Sunday) worship (e.g. Heb. 10:25); completion, which was (and is) a final goal, distinguishes the Seventh Day. The Sabbath day, then, was a sign of this eschatological rest, whereas Sunday is not presented in the NT as a sign of anything, despite its connection to the resurrection. It is simply a well-chosen day upon which to gather to encourage one another in daily, unceasing striving to enter the Sabbath rest (Heb. 4:11). The only gathering which can truly be described as sabbatical is the gathering of the bond-servants who will reign with the Lamb for ever in the new creation (Rev. 22:3–6). (pgs. 749-750)

The second is from A.T. Lincoln, who wrote a chapter in From Sabbath to Lord’s Day called “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: a Biblical and Theological Perspective”:

God’s concern for the whole person and for all His creatures being able to have regular rest from their work surely instructs us that although the literal Sabbath day of rest has been abrogated and has not been transferred to Sunday, we should share this concern for regular periods of rest both for ourselves and for others in our society. From this perspective this essay is not advocating that Christians should not rest on Sunday. Rather its position suggests that they should take regular rest, that this rest can be any day or extended part of a day, including Sunday, but that there is no biblical or compelling theological reason why it has to be Sunday. (pg. 404)

Can a Christian Commit Suicide?

Crystal and I found out this past week that a young man we had grown up with in church had committed suicide. One of the persistent perplexities I have when I hear of a professing believer who ends his or her life is whether or not it is possible for someone who is truly born again to commit suicide.

To get some help, I listened to a funeral message John Piper preached over a year ago for a young man at Bethlehem who committed suicide. He addresses this issue in the following excerpt from the online manuscript:

The stake is this: True Christians can commit suicide. Or to put it another way: There is nothing unique or peculiar about the final act of life that makes it determinative in validating or nullifying our salvation. Or let me say it another way: The final season of faith with all its battles and failures is not the only season of faith that will bear witness in the Last Day that we were born again.

For example, suppose tonight, in my physical weariness, the remaining corruption in my born-again, Christian heart were to get the upper hand, and pride and self-pity and anger were to lash out verbally at my wife. And then suppose that in a great self-justifying huff, I stormed out of the door, got in the car, bolted carelessly through the stop sign on 18th Avenue and was broadsided by a truck and killed in an instant? Would I go to heaven?

Unless I have been a hypocrite through all these last fifty-five years of my Christian life, the answer is yes. For these reasons: 1) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for my sins and bore the wrath of God in my place so that all my sins might be forgiven. 2) Jesus Christ lived a perfect life of obedience so that by his obedience many sinners could be counted righteous, including me. 3) This sacrifice and this righteousness become mine by faith alone when I trust Jesus as the Lord and Savior and Treasure of my life. 4) This trust is embattled till the day I die, with seasons of strength and seasons of weakness, seasons of darkness and seasons of light. 5) If the last season is so dark that I die by my own sin, that season is not the only season that God takes into account when he presents the evidence that my faith was real.

Check Out Fighterverses.com

Tyler Kenney, a good friend of mine, has started a collaborative blog with Phil Head (another good friend) and me at fighterverses.com. The purpose of the blog is to offer at least three weekly meditations on each week’s Fighter Verse (the name for Bethlehem Baptist Church’s church-wide Bible memory program) to serve as an encouragement to help people meditate on the Word of God as they commit it to heart. Feel free to stop on by if you’re in the digital neighborhood. We’ll put some tea on.

What Superpower Would You Like to Have?

When I was younger I wished that I could have a superpower that guaranteed I would make every single basket I shot. Oh, how the crowds would swoon. That’s when I wanted to be in the NBA. Now, I think I would settle for being able to fly.

Tradition!

Crystal and I enjoyed a really special treat last night. We got to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. What made it even more enjoyable was the fact that Topol, who played the lead character Tevye in the 1971 movie, was performing in person. From what I gather, this is the last time he will play this role in Minneapolis.

Topol has definitely aged, but it was so great to hear his voice. The sets, the dancing, the dialogue were all delightful. It was a great date.

If you’re in the Minneapolis area, the show is playing through March 1. The tickets are a little pricy, but Crystal and I kept a couple seats warm for you up in the nosebleed section.

5 Geography Trivia Questions

These questions are from a loose paper that came with the latest issue of National Geographic. They are all about oceans and they are questions from the National Geographic Bee. I’ll include the answers at the end of the post so you can test your intellectual prowess.

1. In which ocean is Ascension Island, home to one of the three ground stations for the Global Positioning System?
2. Sala-y-Gómez, a rocky islet of volcanic origin, is located on the Nasca Plate in which ocean?
3. Which ocean shares the longest stretch of open water with the Arctic Ocean?
4. In which ocean is the Ninetyeast Ridge, a long mid-ocean ridge that is located north of the Kerguelen Plateau?
5. Cocos, a nine-square-mile island that is a national park, lies north of the Galápagos in which ocean?

As a brief intermission so you’re not tempted to look at the answers too quickly, one of my favorite shows when I was growing up was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Okay, now the answers:

1. Atlantic
2. Pacific
3. Atlantic
4. Indian
5. Pacific

So This Is How They Make Donuts

I never knew.

How Well Do You Know Your Biblical References?

My wife passed along this quiz from the BBC. It is a set of ten questions which test your knowledge of biblical references that are made in classic works of literature. Here is the context for the quiz:

From Shakespeare to Steinbeck, literary greats have borrowed heavily from the Bible. Now, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has raised concerns that students of English literature are struggling because they don’t understand Biblical references. Is he right to worry? Test your knowledge with this quiz from the Bible Society.

Try it out. It’s pretty enjoyable.