Thursday, 01 March 2012
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My First VLOG (it's about Bible stuff!)
Very exciting development, I think. Got to run, but do let me know what you think, either of the subject matter or of my poor extemporaneous speaking skills.
Or of my beard.
Peace,
Nic Don
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Comments (23)
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control. :)
First of all, I like the beard. It gives you a philosophical and peaceful appearance. The vlog was a good idea too. It's personable. As far as the content goes, I really have nothing to say. Your base was pretty well covered, and I couldn't disagree with anything. The two covenants are very much one piece. There is a reason why it is written over and over again in the New Testament that the Law is not to be disregarded. We simply have a new way to understand the Law.
I'm not getting the Don Adams, though...
Vlog more often. It was enjoyable.
I didn't realize protestants read the Bible that way. Nobody ever told me that. Also, you're totally in protest. Admit it.
I am with @llamalima - it's news to me that Protestants read the Bible as being in conflict with itself. Funny, I have never heard that or felt that confusion. God has always been the initiator of His relationship with man. Since the Fall, no person has ever wanted that relationship or been able to approach God without God's grace and mercy.
You are right in saying that the OT sacrifices were not efficacious of themselves but pointed forward to the ONE sacrifice that could take away our sin, and that faith in God's provision is all that has ever saved anyone.
I think you did a good job on the VLOG - especially since you had no prepared notes.
I won't touch the Luther question because to do so would presuppose that I had the power to read minds and know the motives of others.
@quest4god@revelife - @llamalima - @TheGreatBout - For examples of this reading of scripture, see (for instance) The Future of Justification by John Piper.
I didn't quite picture you this way.
As for the discussion. Since I am agnostic I can't really comment.
Yeah maybe your first vlog should've been one of those "Here are some fun facts about myself!" instead.
As a protestant, I've heard precisely that story, and it doesn't make sense to me either. Even in good books like Tim Keller's The Reason For God.
It's like we're saying people earned their salvation until Jesus came at which point people no longer could earn their salvation but depend upon Jesus.
Hebrews is in my view the best illustration of how both the OT and NT narrate the same story: the story of how people came to God, they believed by faith, and their faith was accounted to them as righteousness.
The NT says that only the person who believes in Christ can truly obey Him. The OT says that only the person who obeys God can truly believe in Him.
So, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, you must believe in order to obey and must obey in order to believe.
Jesus, more than saying "believe" or "obey", just seems to say "Follow me." Following Jesus is the fulfillment of the gospel - it means putting one's faith in Jesus, and as we almost immediately fall into sin again, we experience God's grace making us tougher.
@SolidStateTheory - By all means, feel free to jump in. I don't consider myself a Platonist, but I feel qualified to discuss whether others are reading The Republic correctly or not.
@nyclegodesi24 - "Here are some fun facts about myself!" That's a good idea. I wouldn't have thought of that.
@llamalima - @TheGreatBout - @quest4god@revelife - Or check out this sermon from Mars Hill. I couldn't ask for a better illustration. Basically do a Google search for "works-righteousness" to find the glut of Protestant material accusing both the Catholic church and the Jewish religion of teaching that our good deeds are what save us.
I always prefer text to video because it's easier to analyze imo.
@stuartandabby - You're so right. But maybe I'm not looking for analysis. Maybe I'm looking for... friendship?
I thought you did a pretty good job. I like the beard, I don't think I'd have thought you sounded like Don Adams, but maybe my laptop's speakers aren't that good. I agree that many protestants see a separation between the OT and NT. I'd point to The Church of Christ as an extreme example of a denom. which is almost anti-OT. I've always believed the NT is a natural progression of the OT.
What surprised me about your vlog was that you didn't bring up the biggest difference between the OT and NT is the expectation that we must be born again. We are enabled to obey and serve Christ because we are born of the Holy Spirit, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You did talk about being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but I would have thought that would naturally be connected with being born again.
As far as thoughts on Luther, Calvin or any other reformer, is that they are largely products of the time in which they lived. The Roman Catholic Church really did have excesses, and was in need of reformation. We should take some time to consider the excesses and less than Christlike thinking and behavior of the reformers themselves. And while we're at it, let us look at ourselves and see where we're missing Christ...
If I had to take a guess where you were from I'd guess Missouri or there abouts. I was a lot better at guessing regional accents when I was training to be an actor. I'm probably a million miles away, but hey I tried.
@SirNickDon - Fair enough. I agree that certain things come through in a vlog, a certain level of intimacy, that is not so readily attained through script.
Something else to keep in mind. Though it feels unnatural, it turns out better if you keep eye contact with the webcam and not with your image onscreen.
Adorable. Not awful, your accent reminds me a lot of a dear friend of mine who lives in Tennessee, but I don't know if that's his home state (or your's.) I love your bird's noise in there too. Very sweet. Thank you for putting yourself out there like that, it does seem very intimate (albeit sort of one-way.) This may seem like it comes from left field but I recommend Nathan Englander's new book of short stories, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" - I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about it. (There's a Jewish theme - and in one story there's a particularly poignant and intense use of the Law that made me rethink how I understand the connection between old and new testaments.) What else were we supposed to respond to? Beard? I'm kind of enh on that. Luther? Not a big fan myself. I like your pseudo-Freudian analysis of him. I suspect Augustine (who gets a bad rap too) of relating to Paul that way as well. They share the conversion narrative which can be challenging for cradle-Christians - ours is, of necessity, a different story.
Adorable. Not awful, your accent reminds me a lot of a dear friend of mine who lives in Tennessee, but I don't know if that's his home state (or your's.) I love your bird's noise in there too. Very sweet. Thank you for putting yourself out there like that, it does seem very intimate (albeit sort of one-way.) This may seem like it comes from left field but I recommend Nathan Englander's new book of short stories, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" - I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about it. (There's a Jewish theme - and in one story there's a particularly poignant and intense use of the Law that made me rethink how I understand the connection between old and new testaments.) What else were we supposed to respond to? Beard? I'm kind of enh on that. Luther? Not a big fan myself. I like your pseudo-Freudian analysis of him. I suspect Augustine (who gets a bad rap too) of relating to Paul that way as well. They share the conversion narrative which can be challenging for cradle-Christians - ours is, of necessity, a different story.
I am familiar with the Protestant notion of which you speak, as if grace were invented when Jesus was on the cross. I agree with your assessment of the situation. If one reads Rabbinic literature, however, it is easy to understand why the epistles sound the way they do.
I like the vlog. It makes me want to vcomment, to complete the feeling of a conversation. And the beard is good.
@Such_are_you - I would guess you to be from the West Coast (probably Washington, Oregon, or Nevada) and maybe relocated somewhere else. I thought you did very well and stayed more or less on topic even though I somewhat disagree with the premise of the Protestant Church finding works in the Old Testament and Grace in the New. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and others recognized Abraham's offering of Isaac as faith- based rather than works- based which is echoed in Hebrews 11, Romans 4, Galatians 3, etc. That is the same faith in the New Testament when Paul addresses Grace. Luther had hoped he could change the direction of the Catholic Church and get them back on tract. He recognized Jesus made the same plea to Israel and neither would change course.
Also, you mentioned the prophets were keyed into the sacrificial system and didn't recognize Jesus Christ as the final propitiation for sin, but I must disagree with you. There are around 100 prophecies about Christ's (Messiah) coming; Micah 5:2, Malachi 3:1-5, Isaiah 42:1-9, John 8:56, and David's Psalms, etc to mention just a very few. I agree, they may not have understood completely, but they were aware of a change coming for Israel and the Gentiles.
Many, many moons ago I was a radio announcer and I agree with the advice of stuartandabby when they suggested looking at the camera. Whether it is a microphone or a camera, you are only talking to one person (or thing) so focus on "it" and it will help "friendize" you. Good job overall though, especially for a first. My first time on a mike, I froze up for about 15 seconds and in the background in the control room, a few thousand (MILLION?) people heard, "SHUT THE MIKE KEY OFF", "SHUT THE MIKE KEY OFF", "SHUT THE DAMN MIKE KEY OFF!!!! Then I caught on to talking to a friend (the mike) and the problems went away. LOL
If you had a written outline you could have been more concise. But wow you did a great job on a hard subject you have the gift of teaching
Awesome beard. Ha.
living social
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