11 May 2010

"Baby Man" — a sad sermon illustration come to life, then death

by Dan Phillips

[Here's an edited reprint from my blog, June of 2005. I spent all I could of the weekend trying to finish the last fine-tooth-comb editing of my Proverbs manuscript before zapping it off to the publisher. FAIL. Unexpected interruptions. Worked almost without a break from like 4am to night-time yesterday... still, fail. Snif. About 80 pages or so to go. I'm really excited about the book, really invested in what's in it. Want it to be just right, as perfect as I can make it. So... you get this! I actually use this story in the book, so it's fresh in my mind.]

When I would preach on Christian growth, and particularly Hebrews 5:11-14, I'd often use an illustration. (Yes, the same one; yes, all preachers do it; yes, even the Lord re-used parables.) Here is the passage:
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull [Greek says lazy] of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
In my sermon, I would say that one expects a baby to do — well, not much. Hard job, really: all he has to do is sit there and be cute! Now he giggles and coos, now he cries. He's either taking in food, processing it, or disposing of it. Sometimes all those things in combination.

Expectations are low, delivery is high.

It's absolutely adorable — in a tiny little tot of 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months.



And we love our little toddlers, wobbling around in their huge diapers, everything new and interesting to them, emotions on their sleeves. They're really actually learning at an astonishing rate, but it doesn't look like it: they just teeter and totter, explore, make demands, and bless the house simply by being there.

Now, I say in my sermons, picture a twelve-year-old, still in the same state. Or an eighteen, twenty, thirty year old: still in diapers, still helpless and dependent, still in infancy.

Well, of course (I preach) we'd all immediately know something was severely, seriously, terribly wrong. But then (I go on to say) suppose you were to find out that, no, there was nothing wrong with that man's brain. Perfectly healthy. No injuries, no diseases; nothing physically wrong whatever.

He'd just decided not to grow up.

And then I point out that what would alarm us horribly in a marketplace apparently doesn't cause the slightest stir in church.

How so? How many people think they've been Christians for five, ten, twenty, thirty years, and yet have not managed to read the whole Bible through even once? They're perfectly literate, they read novels and magazines and web sites... but not the Bible. How many could not name the books of the New Testament in order, let alone the whole Bible? In fact, how many could not even name the four Gospels in order?

(Aside: a fellow in the last church I pastored informally surveyed several dozens of professed Christians. He asked them just to name the four Gospels. Just that. Either none could, or only one could. And these were long-time Christians, including leaders within their churches. As an added bonus, how do you think they responded, when they found they could not even name the first four books of the New Testament? Were they embarrassed at their own astonishing ignorance? Humbled? Not at all. Instead, they were offended at him for asking.)

Poll after poll reveals those who claim to be born-again Christians to be stunningly ignorant of the Bible, or rebellious against its contents. On Biblical teachings as basic as the deity and bodily resurrection of Christ, the reality of the Devil, salvation by grace alone through Christ alone, low numbers recur over and over again, consistently.

And even among those checking the right doctrinal boxes, if you ask them to demonstrate their faith (on which they claim to base their lives) from the Bible, even if only by one or two apposite verses, you're likelier to be disappointed than not.

Churches aim to palliate, entertain, mollify, tranquilize. I feel the pain of folks searching earnestly for a church home. You feel like you aren't asking too much: just a sound church that believes the Word, preaches it emphatically and passionately, sings some decent songs, and tries to practice it. Yet you just can't find it. Everybody's stuck in past fads, or chasing after current ones, or hearing voices. Or all three by turns.

How can this be? No age, and no country, has had more abundant access to the Bible than ours. No age, and no country, has had available the helps for Bible study that ours has. None has had greater freedom to use and exploit that access.

Yet I daresay that, for all the impact the Bible has on the average professor, the Bible might as well still be in Latin and chained to the pulpit at the local Roman Catholic Church.

We have churches filled with folks who, if their spiritual condition could be seen, are fully grown adults lolling about in diapers, trading off one "binky" for another. It's a horror, but it's a horror we live with without being horrified.

I tell this as an illustration.

Enter "baby man."

"Baby man" is the flesh-and-blood embodiment of my illustration. He is a 54-year-old man who "sleeps in a crib, eats in a high chair and does it in his diaper — by choice." Click on the link, look at the pictures, let your jaw drop in revulsion...

...and next time you excuse yourself for not reading your Bible, not studying, not memorizing, not going to rigorously Bible-preaching churches, not knowing what the Bible teaches as well as you know your favorite hobby, not growing, not bearing fruit, not being one who could teach others instead of standing in daily need of having the basics repeated to you, demanding that God give you whispers and feelings and experiences rather than contenting yourself with His finished, completed, inerrant, sufficient Word, in spite of your decades of professed Christian faith — next time you find yourself doing that, I say, think of Hebrews 5:11-14.

And think of William Windsor. Think of "baby man."

Because that's you.

UPDATE: since I wrote that article, "Baby Man" died. Sad life, sad death. I could not find it on a more mainstream news site, only on a cynical alternative-type site. It does link to more information about this wrecked soul and his sad, wasted life. Inherited a truckload of money, had been married, devoted himself to living like a baby. Sad, sad sad. There are other images of him... but I don't think they'd be uplifting.

Dan Phillips's signature

54 comments:

Jeff B said...

I like your writings a lot more when they're directed at someone else. Thank you for using the goad on me. I needed it.

VcdeChagn said...

Thank you for using the goad on me. I needed it.

You too? I'm behind on my reading plans and I wasn't feeling bad about it at all...now this :)

What a great illustration of how foolish we are to ignore God's word for passing fads.

I read the entire 7 page article linked. How incredibly strange.

Jason Kanz said...

Hey guys,
I just got back in to reading your stuff again. This is a great article! Thank you for sharing it. Now, to go back to my glass of milk. ;)

Webster Hunt (Parts Man) said...

A customer and friend of mine came in this morning and we were speaking about just this - feeding on the Word, and how so many claiming Christ is their Lord have nothing to do with His Word.

Very reproving.

Christopher said...

Unfortunately, I have to agree that I have felt "stunted" lately and have made a myriad of excuses. Thank you.

Stefan Ewing said...

Dan:

From one perfectionist to another (hence my pattern of deleting and redrafting blog comments), I feel your pain.

I will chew over this post later, but re biblical literacy, Luke 24:27, 44 comes to mind as a good "mission statement," as it were.

Sven Pook said...
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Sven Pook said...

Oops forgot one thing, so I deleted and edited:

A good friend of mine has preached the same message on numerous occasions. He even used the term baby-man, though I don't believe he'd ever heard of "Baby Windsor" but I am e-mailing this to him for his next foray in Hebrews 5.

It makes me think of the current church we attend . . .I grit my teeth as I think of it, but here in the mountains there is not much choice; the pastor is on a series based on Survivor. Yes, that's right, the CBS "reality" series . . . it is full of some real non-fat milk . . . (sigh) . . . Lots of "steps" to "perform" our walk. Whatever happened to "Abide in Me and I in you and you will bear much fruit."

Thank God for Pilgrim radio (http://www.pilgrimradio.com/Home.php) who play wonderful sermons by people like Phil Johnson, John MacArthur and John Piper. I'm gonna request some Dan Phillips.

Sorry to whine so much, good article Dan and best of luck on the book . . .wanna read my manuscript ;)

Chris said...

Dan:

Thank you for the conviction! The Lord knows I needed it today.

While most, I should hope, who read this blog regularly do not fall into the extreme category illustrated by your examples, I for one am sharply convicted by these words today. Like others who have expressed their conviction from this post, I am picturing a math equation for myself--a ratio--of years in the faith to resources at my disposal to hours of study each and every week to pursuing difficult questions (and finding answers to such questions) to application of what God reveals to me, etc...etc...etc... ....and I'm floored!

God has been so gracious and generous to me, providing more at my fingertips to know and study His truth than so many other faithful souls around the world (picturing those dear brethren in the persecuted church in some countries who are forced to hide mere pages of scripture in their homes at any given time) that it sickens me to think I've wasted even a grain of all he has provided (looking up at my shelf with a half-dozen bibles sitting there)!

Two years ago, my prayer was a plea that God might lead us to a good church that faithfully taught His word after years of going from one weak, unfaithful, and/or heretical church to another. Well, He did far more than I could have asked or thought in delivering us to the greatest church I could ever imagine. In my estimation, our new church is entirely flawless (I know every church has its flaws, but in contrast to where we had been...)! Every pastor is absolutely sound in his teaching and sincere love for Christ is obvious in all of them; the spiritual food they provide for the flock is so incredibly rich, deep, and solid that it would take more than a lifetime of uninterrupted study to pursue every key point or insight they teach. Furthermore, the doctrines of grace are embraced, and everything about this church is highly dignified and reverent towards the Lord, as it should be. The resources they provide are limitless, taking another lifetime to exhaust even a fraction of all that is available. Finally, the degree of love for Christ and for one-another (real joy) abounds everywhere. Well, what all this means for me is that I can only blame my own sinfulness for not growing at the rate I should have over the past two years, and the Lord has made it clear to me that I am found wanting at the end of these two years of growth. He gave me what I asked for, yet my ratio of teaching to resources to growth has not been what it should.

Eric said...

Sven,

"...best of luck..."

What is this luck thing of which you speak? ;)

Sven Pook said...

Eric;

LOLOLOLOLOL

You caught me . . . Oh, no! I'm being turned to the dark side . . .

Man, I'm still laughing. After spending a year writing a novel in which I point out that luck and coincidence do not really exist I write that. I guess I never learned my own lesson. :D

Stefan Ewing said...

Well, here is a salutary lesson for you all.

Like Chris, God has been gracious in leading me to a Gospel-centered church.

I've been in our church's Bible school program for the last two years, but due to work, family, and commuting issues, allowed myself to fall behind in the required reading (Scripture reading!) during the Historical Books course, and ended up having to write off the Poetical Books course.*

Getting back into intensive Scripture reading was something that I found too easy to put off and then cram at the last minute, just like any other kind of coursework when I've been in school in the past.

What a way to neglect the Word of God, especially considering how our ancestors in the faith laboured (think Wycliffe and Tyndale) to put Holy Scripture into the hands of laypeople.

(*I have read through all these books of the Bible, but one of the basic course requirements is to reread the relevant books during the term.)

Disciple of Jesus Christ said...
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Stefan Ewing said...

But I can name the 12 minor prophets in order, together with the other 54 books of the Bible.

donsands said...

" Were they embarrassed at their own astonishing ignorance? Humbled? Not at all. Instead, they were offended at him for asking.)"

I have seen the most immature spiritual people in the church, with the most boldness at times.

It simply blows me away.

They cry, "Where's the grace? We're not supposed to judge."


Thanks for a good re-post.

That Baby Man is a sad ordeal.

But there's nothing new under the Sun. Well, baby, I mean, maybe, there are a few new insane things that can take place.

Disciple of Jesus Christ said...
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Mary Elizabeth Tyler said...

I think this is the very reason so many of us blog. Don't some of you? I, personally, find it hard to find women at church who will engage in discussing the deeper things of the Lord (outside of a Bible study), making it hard to talk about my Lord/our Savior.

I love to discuss Jesus and His Word. And it seems only a very small handful at church (even men find this to be true) want to engage in any kind of meaningful dialogue.

So, as many find blogging distasteful: I find it encouraging. It does fulfill a need for many of us. It is important to share Christ with others and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord.

If our churches do not produce sound biblical advocates for Christ, stir something deep within people to love His Word, and who can name the Ten Commandments, and the first four books of the NT, then people will find a way that expresses their need to share Christ.

Great article, Dan, the NOT-so baby man. Well, it rhymes. :)

Rachael Starke said...

Wow. What a powerful analogy.

I think there are two camps. There are those, like me, who grew up absolutely enculturated with the Bible - pastor's daughter, at church every time the doors were open, winner of every VBS prize in existence, Queen of the sword drill, etc. Then I went to Bible college (still as an unbeliever), to earn a piece of paper that would be proof of how much I know.

God saved me there, but it wasn't until I had children, who tested every single thing all that documentation said I already knew, that I really understood that the end of all my knowledge wasn't knowledge, it was life. And then I found not only did I need, to relearn everything I though I'd known before, but I wanted to do it too.

Then there's the totally unchurched whom God saves through various miraculous means, and more often than not they meet up with a whole bunch of people in my camp, get really freaked out at the strange language we speak and the giant books we read, and turn up their noses at the whole thing and decide they just need to "experience" God, not really know Him. Not to derail the meta with another analogy, but we act like spiritual Bobblehead dolls - giant heads rocking back and forth, with little tiny bodies that do pretty much nothing.

DJP said...

You know, seriously, you all might want to pray about this.

I had an obsessive on my site, made himself so obnoxious that he finally got himself banned.

But he felt himself to be above all laws and standards not generated from within himself, and continued posting these unhinged rants, requiring constant administration, spoiling the enjoyment of others.

Eventually, with him and other trolls, I just set the blog to require admin approval before a comment is published. My readers have been gracious, but I know it isn't their preference. Mine either. It's a shortcoming of Blogger, that it doesn't allow individual blocking.

So if someone is so self-centered and arrogant as to keep barging in the door when the hosts have said "Get out," it's conceivable Pyro could have to take that step.

None of us has has the additional time to be babysitters.

Pierre Saikaley said...

"(Aside: a fellow in the last church I pastored informally surveyed several dozens of professed Christians. He asked them just to name the four Gospels. Just that. Either none could, or only one could. And these were long-time Christians, including leaders within their churches"


BUT, I bet they all know JOHN 3:16!

Zaph

DJP said...

I wouldn't bet on it, Zaph. Honestly, I would have guessed that every literate American could name the four Gospels... let alone churchgoing Christians.

But most or all of these were Charismatics. I think that explains a lot, but not everything.

Stefan Ewing said...
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Stefan Ewing said...
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Jeff B said...

At times I find the trolls to be useful. The responses generated by you, Phil, Frank and the readers are informative and very helpful for me in dealing with those who would pose similar arguments.

Those that ask the same question over and over even after it has been answered over and over should be thrown under the bus. Gently of course.

Tom Austin said...

Does it count if I can only recite the books of the Bible while singing the song?

Either way, thanks for the much-needed reminder that I need to grow, and that just reading theo-blogs isn't enough..

DJP said...

Rbiggle - yes, that counts.

Stefan - There are many very godly teachers in the Church who look askance at blogging and the way it can form and shape our opinions, for understandably good reason.

What understandably good reasons would those be?

Stefan Ewing said...
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Stefan Ewing said...
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Halcyon said...

In regards to the post:

Reminds me of the whole "hot, cold, lukewarm" analogy used in Revelation. Mediocre/Infantile Christianity is perhaps the most insipid and insidious thing to ever plague the modern church (perhaps even worse than clear-as-day heresies): a devouring canker from within rather than an full-frontal assault from without.

As for "Baby-Man": his death is sad, but have you ever met someone who caused you to have a simultaneous need to pity them and slap them around a bit for their own good? Oops, I'm sorry: I must learn not to judge. 8^P

In regards to inane and obnoxious trolls:

You should also include the rule where you will "accurately" reproduce their comments for everyone else. I always found that to be hilarious.

OR, maybe you should post their comments (without any changes) in a future post where you (and fellow commentators) get to satirize them? That would be a great series (and a helpful deterrent). The only question is: What should we call it?

"Troll Execution"

"Troll-Baiting"

"Here Come the Trolls"

"For Whom the Bell Trolls"

"A Troll walks into a bar..."

"Your Best Troll Now"

"The Purpose-Driven Troll"

and finally

"Troll-Fu: The Legend Continues"

Sven Pook said...

Halcyon;

How about:
"Troll Call"

"Troll House Cookies"

or

"Troll Bridge"

Death or Glory Toad said...

Or Trawling the Trolls?

BTW. Thank you for your article. Great stuff right when I need to read it. As always.

Lynda O said...

So true and sad, the Bible illiteracy among professing Christians.

I like Grant Horner's approach to get people interested in really reading their Bibles, a genre plan that has you reading 10 chapters of the Bible (every day), and always reading a selection from each of the various sections of the Bible. Now I think nothing of reading 12 chapters every day, it really doesn't take that long, and yet a lot of people think it's a big deal if they even read the Bible once a year -- which really isn't that much. Horner's plan is making at least a small impact -- the FB group has over 8,000 members. Don't know if all 8,000 are sticking with it, but many are.

Mark B. Hanson said...

Mary,

For awhile, the women at my church were mostly content with discussing "the diaper things of God" (their children and husbands). But one woman persisted in trying to draw them deeper into the Word, and over several years it has paid off well. We now have a vibrant womens' ministry and a more biblically- centered family focus.

And the men have profited much as well.

DJP said...

"the diaper things of God"

Oh boy.

(c;

Rachael Starke said...

"the diaper things of God"

That is awesome. I fully intend to steal that and use it at our women's Bible study tomorrow. :)

Re: the new challenge with ...difficult...commenters, I was thinking you could switch to a less encouraging comment platform like, oh, say, Echo. But why do I have the feeling that would end up just deterring the good guys and giving the bad guys another challenge they just have to meet? :)

A blog is like the world's most open open house. Anyone can walk in off the street, good intentions or ill, and choose to read and apply, read and ignore, or not read and have no clue about the rules of the aforesaid house.

bp said...

Is it possible for one to remain a baby Christian for one's whole life? And is there any way of distinguishing them from false converts?

I struggle with this question when it comes to family members. Are they baby Christians or are they unregenerate? My Dad is 75 now. Confesses to be Christian, but about the only thing he ever says about God is that he marvels at how the good Lord has taken care of him over the years. When I try to bring up Spiritual matters, he usually changes the subject. And just yesterday, he called to tell me his sister died and at the end of the conversation, he told me to say a prayer for her.

I worry about my Dad a lot. He's been in and out of the hospital and I know he'll face the Lord one day very soon. Yet, even though most of my bro/sisters confess Christ, they frown at "causing waves" and I'm already considered the radical one.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler said...

Stefan said: “There are many very godly teachers in the Church who look askance at blogging and the way it can form and shape our opinions, for understandably good reason.”

I understand some of the reasons, Stefan. I think it is to keep heresy from running rampant in the church. Many people, who are new to the faith or just come to church to feel good, are very susceptible to heresy. But for the more stable Christian, I cannot see where it hurts to blog.

I debated five very good Catholic apologists on another forum, and I have to say I learned more from doing that than I did in a month’s worth of Bible study classes. Debate is good; it forces you to go deep into the Word of God for truth.

Also, it is true that our churches should not have a vice grip and strangle hold on truth (in the very negative sense), and keep us from searching for truth on our own. This is where cults are born and flourish, when exclusivity takes hold of the pulpit, and people are not allowed to read and discover truth for themselves. I think the reformation was a prime example of that, having brought us from the dark ages of the RCC into the age of light. I, for one, do not want to see that reversed.

But...at the same time truth IS exclusive. I think people get my meaning.

trogdor said...

This is one of my all-time favorite posts, even when I look at myself in that mirror. Of course, it also applies to things beyond scriptural fluency, as many of us still exhibit immature behaviors that should have been left in the nursery years ago.

F'r instance, obsessive banned stalker trollism (in the name of Jesus, no less) is probably a good sign of diaper rash.

Stefan Ewing said...

Mary:

I hear you.

Just to be clear with you and Dan, my research is based on a sample size of precisely 2.

This feedback did not come to me in the form of a "thou shalt not," but rather wise counsel from one particular mentor (who reads all the right books and is up on all the right conferences) regarding exercising discernment on the Internet, back when I was more of a "cage stage" Calvinist.

...And there is one very well-known small-r reformed theologian (whom we all know and respect) who apparently holds a low view of the whole concept of blogging, but it would seem that his is both a personal preference and a minority opinion, given the way that T4G, the Gospel Coalition, and their ilk use these kinds of media for the sake of the Gospel.

Stefan Ewing said...

Mary and Dan again:

I've deleted my earlier comments pertaining to this subtopic, because it seems that they may have created the wrong impression.

I meant that there seems to be a certain attitude (if a minority position) towards blogging among some in the greater Church (i.e., the worldwide body of Christ), not in my local church—except for one teacher whose reasons I hope I've made clearer in my last comment.

Pierre Saikaley said...

Can't even name the 4 Gospels.

That's pathetic. Atheists, Muslims, your average joe unbeliever even has a cursory knowledge of Matthew , Mark , Luke and John.

Hey, I sometimes get tripped up naming the Epistles in cannonical order, but that's just unbelievable.

DJP said...

I'm still blogging on it tomorrow, Stefan. At my place.

DV

Stefan Ewing said...

Okay, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler said...

Mark B Hanson:

You know, Mark, at the risk of offending everyone, which I have no intention of doing, that is never my purpose, because I love both my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I think the role of women in the church is confusing to women, as well as men.

Women are told to be silent in the church, which I TOTALLY agree with, I am not here to promote any other way. I believe it is God’s Word, and that is final as far as I am concerned. But…being silent is often taken to mean, by some, anyway, that women do not have a part to play or a specific role or function in the church in ANY manner. This leaves women feeling left out of the mainstream of Christendom, and I truly believe it leads to a real indifference concerning Bible study. So women end up doing, what? They fall back on their respective roles and serve coffee, doughnuts, and as you so cleverly put it, doing the diaper things of God.

I reconcile it this way, which to me is very simple. Women and men are both instructed in their particular roles in the church, as well as their respective roles in their homes. Men are to be the head of both of these institutions, and perform this with all godly love and wisdom. And Jesus is very CLEAR on the ROLES we all play. But, we must be cognisant of the fact that positionally; both men and women are ONE in Christ. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father OF ALL, who is above all, and through all, and IN YOU ALL (Eph 4:4-6).”

Now note, that Jesus does not just leave it there (women’s instructed silence in the church) but in fact shows women the importance of being instructed in the knowledge of God, and wants us to study to show ourselves approved. He chastises Martha for doing the very ROLE things women are designed to do, and tells Mary she has the “better part.” The reason for the chastisement is, I believe, that our devotion to Christ, as women, supersedes any role we are given to play here on earth. We set aside our roles, everything, to sit at the feet of the master and learn of His ways. A devotee and follower of Christ is first and foremost who we are, as women, in Christ.

If women could understand these things better, I feel we would take a stronger lead in discipling our children and other women in the ways of the Lord. This would also lead to women feeling less isolated and less like second class Christians. I know, I talk to many women concerning this issue. I even had one woman ask me if the Bible was written just for men.

Sorry to go off topic, Dan. :(

threegirldad said...

Here's a potential alternative to comment moderation. I'd donate to support the licensing costs if you all were willing to give it a try (assuming things got to that point).

one busy mom said...

Dan,
Earlier this evening my youngest daughter was singing the books of the OT and asked me to join in.....I was already feeling guilty that I get lost after about 7 or so. Then I come here! Now I'll have to learn them. :-)

Mary,
Although there does seem to be much confusion about the roles of women in the church, I have also observed that many times women find themselves in odder and more difficult situations than men, resulting in isolation. sometimes that leads to a deeper dependence upon Christ and His Word, and ultimately greater spiritual maturity. I recall one particularly godly woman I knew years ago, whose husband was a minister and basically an unconverted false teacher - hers was an incredibly difficult walk!

back on subject...it'ld be really sad if the comments were derailed by trolls - I know I learn tons here.

Mark B. Hanson said...

Mary,

Please understand that in my over-the-top phrase, I meant no reference to the work of women in my church, only their conversation, which for the most part left Jesus and the Bible out of the discussion. It was their conversation - about good things (mostly) but not Godly things - that was addressed by that faithful woman. She started first (of all things) with a womens' Bible study in the church kitchen!

Pierre Saikaley said...

I just want to be a proud daddy, just like you're a proud Grand-daddy, and say that my 3 year old daughter, Olivia, is learning 1 John 4, and how test the spirits.

It's the cutest thing, but she knows that the bible is the test of the spirits. We've gotten be faighful and start em young to avoid the scandal of ignorance among professing Christians.

Henry said...

Hi Mary Elizabeth Tyler, I have a question for you. You said that:

Women are told to be silent in the church, which I TOTALLY agree with, I am not here to promote any other way. I believe it is God’s Word, and that is final as far as I am concerned.

May I ask how you reconcile this with 1Cor11:5? (Not saying that you can't - I just would be interested to know how you do and also what led you to this conclusion because as far as I know many complementarians do not see 1Cor14:34 as an absolute prohibition).

Thanks

Solameanie said...

I was finally forced to enable comment moderation over at my place, too. Only in my instance, a couple of clowns kept posting links to pornography sites. They did it over at Ron Gleason's blog as well.

I really wish Blogger would allow banning by IP. Until then, the solution offered by TGD might well be worth looking into. I've only had to ban four people since 2005, which isn't bad, but some people can indeed be stubborn.

jmb said...

This post has been very convicting for me. A girlfriend once told me that I had never grown up. I had a perfect response to that, but when I raised my hand she wouldn't call on me.

DJP said...

Ba-dum bum!

(c;

jmb said...

Thanks for the rim shot.

Mary Elizabeth Tyler said...

Hi Halo:

I have not forgotten you, just been busy.

I will have an answer for you maybe some time before Saturday. I have a few busy days scheduled. You can check my blog for the answer, as I will not derail Dan's topic anymore.

Have a great day!

God bless.