God and Social Justice: Amos 1-2

Bible Study in the Summer
One of the things I enjoy about Christmas break and summer break is that I can do what I enjoy on a regular basis without having to worry about school work. Some of my hobbies- such as video games and reading- could be done during the school year, but post-secondary education requires the laying aside of personal hobbies in order to succeed academically. Bible Study is one of my favourite activities that has to be indirectly set aside during the school year because the Bible books and passages I study during the Fall and Winter semesters are chosen when I choose my classes. Taking biblical studies courses during the semester naturally requires me focus on the books/sections/passages of the Bible that the course is based on with little room to study other books on my own. Summer time allows me to study portions of the Bible that I will not be studying during the school year. This allows me to keep my inductive Bible study skills as razor sharp as they need to be as well as  allowing God to continue to work in and through me during the summer. It also allows me to study the Bible without the added stress that coursework brings. 


I use many resources when I am doing Bible study, but most of them can fall into 1 of 3 categories: the Bible, surveys, and commentaries. The most important resource to use in Bible study is naturally the Bible. However, it is important to learn about the different translations/versions of the Bible that there are in English because there are 1000s of them. The versions I prefer to use are the New International Version (NIV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the New Living Translation (NLT). Before using surveys and commentaries, it is a good idea to thoroughly observe the passage that is being studied. What is observation? Well I cannot thoroughly explain but it is just reading the passage over and over again and looking for several features. Some features include repeated words, who is speaking to whom if it is a dialogue or letter, noting any geographical locations, noting how God acts/reacts or how the person writing talks about Him, and various other things. Observation is different from interpretation because the purpose is to not figure out what the Bible passage means but what the passage says. I learned all about this in my interpretation and application of the biblical text class, among other things when it comes to doing Bible study. Personally, I think EVERY Christian should take some kind of course on proper Bible Study but that's a discussion is for another article.


The second type of resource are Bible surveys. Bible surveys focus more on the historical and cultural context of the Bible as a whole and then focus more on the books specifically. Some surveys cover the entire Bible, others cover either the Old or New Testament, and others cover specific books. They are quite useful in understanding the historical context of the book being studied as well as  the literature/genre of the book and what to look for while reading- such as theological themes. 


The second set of resources are Bible commentaries. Commentaries give verse-by-verse explanations of the Bible books. Good commentaries usually focus on one book or a small collection of books. They also cover historical background and themes of the books and give summaries, but they go deeper then the surveys. It is good to use more than one commentary when studying a book of the Bible because although they are useful, they are often subject to the opinions of who is writing. Certain controversial passages- such as Genesis 1-2 and 1Timothy 2- are often subject to the author's personal interpretation; therefore, the reader should use more then one commentary when studying them.


Book of Amos:

Currently I am doing a Bible Study using the NIV Application Commentary series. I've read through Hosea and now I am reading through Amos. Both Hosea and Amos are minor prophets and the only two with their own respective books that were sent to prophesy in the Northern Kingdom. Hosea was a native to the Northern Kingdom, but Amos was brought up in Judah, and worked as a shepherd and raised Sycamore trees before he was called as a prophet to the Northern Kingdom. Some say that Amos was the very first foreign missionary ever called  because by the time of Amos, Israel and Judah had been separate kingdoms for over 200 years and had developed very different cultures.

... Public Service Announcement ...

I think before I continue talking about Amos, I should give you people the back story of God's calling Amos to prophesy. The story of Israel is from Genesis 11 to the end of Nehemiah. In Genesis God called Abraham to form a nation that would be the people of God. Genesis ends with Abraham's grandson, Jacob/Israel, in Egypt because of a famine that plagued the land God promised to give Abraham's descendants. In Exodus-Deuteronomy God rescues the people from Egypt, gives them the Law, and eventually leads them to the Promised Land. Joshua-Ruth records Israel conquering the promised land and beginning its period as an independent, theocratic nation. Theocratic nations are nations where God, or a diving being, is the head of state. Throughout Exodus-Ruth the Israelites are mostly proven to be a rebellious people who repeatedly fall into apostasy and do not hold to the Law God gave them through Moses (Mosaic Law Code). While God is shown to be patient and faithful numerous times, Israel clearly proved to be a way ward people that violated their agreement/covenant with God and ended up being enslaved by other nations. This enslavement was a part of the covenant they made with God: if they followed what was written in the covenant, such as not following other gods (idolatry), then God would bless them and they would stay in the land; however, if they chose to reject God and refuse to follow His laws (which would be breaking the covenant) then God would discipline and eventually have them enslaved or exile them from the land. The latter happened over and over again in the book of Judges. Judges 2 summarizes what happens in the book perfectly. 


The books of 1Samuel-2Chronicles tell the tale of Israel when it became a monarchy. The first king was King Saul, who proved to be an oppressive despot instead of an ideal Israelite, who whole heartedly followed God. The second King was King David. King David is the line that Jesus would eventually be born from, who is our Lord and Saviour. Because of David's faithfulness to God, God chose David's dynasty to be the rightful ruler over Israel and for the Messiah to be born through his line. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 connect the two individuals quite well. Even though King David was the greatest king of Israel, I personally believe he became an incompetent flop in the end. Jesus will always be the ideal king/ruler/head of state any day of the week. This is why I  do not like any government that  currently exists on earth because they are always full of flaws  because they are run by imperfect, sinful human beings. Jesus is fully human and fully God, and His ruler ship will always be the ideal government that I support above all others any day, but that subject is for another blog article. Back to the regular scheduled programming.


King Solomon succeeded David and built the temple and palace, and basically made Israel into an Empire. Up until that time inter-tribal rivalries always existed and attempts by King David to unify them were only partially successful. When King Solomon was in power, inter tribal rivalry heated up again because Solomon made Jerusalem the religious capital, the political capital. Jerusalem was in the tribe of Judah- the tribe that was exempt from paying taxes to pay for Solomon's army and other expenses. When King Solomon died the 10 Northern Tribes rebelled against Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and made Jeroboam (Jeroboam I) king over the new Kingdom-Israel. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, or the two Southern Tribes, remained under David's dynasty and they formed the Kingdom of Judah. In this blog article, unless stated otherwise, when I say Israel I mean the Northern Kingdom/Northern Tribes, and if I say Judah I mean the Southern Kingdom/Southern Tribes.

The Northern Kingdom was bad news all the way down to 722BC when they were conquered by the Assyrian Empire. Their first king was Jeroboam I who lead the nation astray by setting up two golden calves to represent God, appointing his own priests, and appointing random feasts in the Israelite calendar. All of these were done in order to prevent people from fulfilling their religious duties in Jerusalem and potentially reunifying with Judah... Oh yeah, and they were also violations of the Mosaic Law Code (see Ex. 20, and Deuteronomy 5; Leviticus 8-10; and Leviticus 23-25). This caused the people to be led astray and opened the door for King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to introduce Baalism into the Northern Kingdom. Because Baal is depicted as a golden calf, the people began to confuse God with Baal and combined Mosaic Yahwism (Israel's religion prior to 586BC) with Canaanite Baalism. This downward spiral lead to a lot of social, religious, and political corruption. Reading about what life was like back then makes me glad I live in the 21st century AD and not during the monarchy period of Israel/Judah.


Eventually Judah suffered the same fate as the Northern Kingdom in 586 BC. They lasted longer because quite a few righteous kings ruled the nation but most of them were bad. After king Manasseh basically lead the nation to break every law in the Mosaic Covenant from idolatry to social injustice, God eventually said enough is enough and Jerusalem was sacked, and the temple was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire in 586BC.

... Back to the Regular Scheduled Programming: Amos 1-2 ...

One of the issues God had with the Northern Kingdom was social justice, or lack thereof. The people were really nasty to one another back then. In Amos 1:3-2:3 God describes the inhumane acts of the nations surrounding Israel and Judah. Philistia, Tyre, and Edom were involved in the capturing and deporting of innocent people and selling them into slavery during peace times; Ammon was known for enlarging their territory by ripping open pregnant women to kill their unborn in order to in still terror into people so that they would flee their lands- lands that the Ammonites gladly took over; Moab was VERY disrespectful to the dead; and Edom was not only buying slaves and being a hateful and oppressive brother to the people of Judah and Israel (Israel and Judah are descendants of Jacob who was the younger brother of Esau who fathered the people of Edom).

Amos 2:4-2:16 proved that the "people of God" were not any better. Judah's problem was that it refused to follow God's laws in the Torah and that the people allowed themselves to be lead astray by false prophets and  corrupt political leaders. Israel bullied their own people by not giving the poor people enough time to pay off small loans in order to sell them into slavery, sexually abusing female servants (Ex. 21:7-11; Lev. 19:20-22), and trying to worship God with stolen goods (such as cloaks and wine). Reading all about this stuff and gaining insight from Bible surveys and commentaries on Amos brought me to a couple of realizations.

One of the obvious things that God wants to teach people in this passage is that He is the Lord of all nations. In Western society this can be hard to believe because we have so much money, technology and other benefits that it seems we control our own destinies. In some ways that is true because it is the choice of every individual to follow God or reject Him. However, this does not mean that God does not sovereignly rules over all nations. The prophecies, also called "war oracles" because they are things that prophets or priests would say before they went off to war, in Amos 1-2 show that God will hold all nations and all people accountable-- including His own. 

Another thing is that God is for social justice. This is because of who God is and how He created human beings. Social injustice is committed when people, usually those in power, violate the human rights and human dignity of other people, usually those who are not in power. These things violate the image of God as all people are created in God's image. Denying someone their rights and dignity as a human being, violates the image of God and that makes God mad. God is also a loving God and throughout Scripture we read of a God who cares about the poor, the humble, and the weak of all societies. Furthermore, He is shown as one who fights for the oppressed against their oppressors. This was true in the case of the Exodus when God fought for the oppressed Israelites against their oppressors, the Egyptians. This event showed that God fulfils His promises, is a God of grace and wants to save people, and that oppressors are His enemy. 

In Amos day the Israelites seemed to have forgotten God's grace to them and that He is against oppressors, as now they have become oppressors. As a Christian, I am part of the people of God. From reading the Bible, it is clear that God's people do not really get special treatment unless they walk in obedience. To me, this shows that that God does not truly show favourites because anyone can become a part of God's people. God saved me and my brothers and sisters in Christ through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the greatest oppressors of all time: sin, Satan, and death. Therefore, I have to remember what God did for me then and what He does for me now so I do not become an oppressor. Some people who know me could read this and think that I will never become an oppressor. My answer to that is in our society there is always the potential to be in power and those in power are always tempted to abuse that power and become oppressors. That and sin still exists in me, even though I am redeemed. And just like the Israelites had the potential to do the opposite of what God wanted, I have the potential to do the opposite of what God wants of me too. Therefore, I must always be on guard against this temptation.

Another thing these chapters bring up is God's name and how it can be profaned. An example of this is what is happening in the Catholic Church right now. Because they allowed sin to go rampant and unopposed, God's name, honour, and reputation has been desecrated in the eyes of the people in and outside of that denomination. This is true about any other issue-- especially social injustice because it gives the impression that God supports it, is unable to stop it, or doesn't care about it. A mixture of all three has happened as a result of these scandals, and the first item has especially happened throughout Israelite (Northern + Southern Tribes) and Church history. God's people are supposed to represent God to human beings who are not a part of God's people and show them what God is like. This is what the Bible calls witnessing, and it is a calling that God gives to all human beings who are His people. To allow sins of any kind- such as social injustice, sexual sins, and oppressing others-- violates God's name, honour, and reputation. No wonder God the Son had to come down and reveal God directly, because the Israelites basically did a terrible job of it and in a lot of ways the church has done a terrible job of it. 


Conclusion

Amos 1-2 calls believers to examine their lives and make sure they are not committing social injustices.  There have been many cases throughout history where the church has been directly responsible for social injustice. The oppressed became the oppressors and we are still cleaning up after them to this day.  Thankfully God came down in the person of Jesus Christ to reveal what He is like to us, and He gave us His Word as another revelation to who He is and what He is like and how He views social justice. Social injustice is contradictory to God's character, and He demonstrates it throughout the Old and New Testament.

I think that Amos 1-2, and passages like it, should be preached at least once a month in churches today. Church leaders need to enforce the fact that our actions either honour God bring glory to God or dishonour God and desecrate His name. Perhaps it would cause people, including many church leaders today, to rethink some of their actions and think twice before they choose

I also think that Christians should pay more attention to social justice issues in the world today. If God is the Lord of Nations and cares about what's going on in the world, then we should care and try to get involved. I also think that means that we should know what's going on in our own country and pay attention to things, such as politics. In the Bible it is clear that God cares about politics and who is in power. If our God cares, then we should care and be involved so that God-honouring/God-fearing candidates come into power and that God-honouring laws get passed and the ones that do not honour God or go against what the Bible says are not.

I bet a lot of people reading this are wondering why I haven't posted Amos 1-2 in this article. The reason is that I think that when it comes to the Bible it never hurt to get people to do some work. Look up Amos 1-2 and verify what I am saying. Read Genesis 12-2Chronicles yourself and see if what I wrote about the history of ancient Israel is true or not.After all, you shouldn't be completely trusting my word, but God's Word.  This is why I will rarely post the passage I am talking about within my blog articles unless it is needed. Believe me, it is better to do your homework because you'll get more out of blog articles like this one if you do, and it'll prevent you from being duped!

Father's Day 2010

One of the blessings of being a follower of Christ is you get two fathers. The first father is your earthly father. Earthly father's come in all shapes and sizes. Some earthly father's do their job well and represent another Father almost perfectly, while other earthly fathers fail completely. Thankfully, the second father a follower of Christ has is God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, and He never fails and always goes above and beyond any human being's expectations. In either rain, sleet, or snow God the Father is always the same and always meeting the Fatherly mark perfectly. He always wants what's best for His children without fail and cares about them with an unconditional, perfect, mysterious love.

This Father's Day, I have chosen to write a blog article about and to both of my dad's- the One in heaven and the one on earth who have helped me become the woman I am today.

Dad on Earth
Well, Dad, another father's day is here! I want to thank you for being a good dad. It can be hard to be an earthly dad because you do not have the divine qualities like omnipotence and omniscience that my Heavenly Dad has and you also have your own flaws that can sometimes get in the way. Nevertheless you were a good father, in spite of your human limitations, and positively contributed to me being the woman I am today. Even though some of your methods seemed harsh at times, I know you always wanted what was best for me and my siblings. You always reminded us how much you loved us and most importantly you introduced us to our Father in heaven.

Thank you for making sure we were brought up in the Church and for making sure you introduced us to Jesus Christ. I am always humbled by how you depend on God to get through your day in spite of the hardships that life can throw at all of us. I hope and pray that you continue down this path of godliness, in order to shine God's life to the people in your apartment building, the people you encounter on the streets of Charlottetown PEI, and to the people you interact with when you run.

Dad in Heaven
It's amazing. No matter how many times I think that I know all there is to know about You, You surprise me. For example, I read yesterday from Hosea 11:1-11 that You often undergo internal conflicts when it comes to your wayward people on earth. The battle between divine justice and divine love is a mysterious thing that goes on inside you-- you know you need to punish sin but you want to punish them but you want to show mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. By "them" I am referring to the Israelites, God's chosen people who  repeatedly ditch God to follow other deities over and over and over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament.God loves people more than God hates sin and wants to show us mercy and forgiveness. Yet time and time again we walk away and shake our fists at Him and go serve idols. This is even true about people who are followers of Christ.

Makes me wonder sometimes who is more persistent- human beings who persistently rebel against God or God who lovingly and persistently chases after human beings! This is one of a number of reasons why I want to study theology and biblical studies! God is the perfect thing/Person/Being  to study for the rest of one's life if you ask me, but that is how God designed me. Another amazing thing about our Heavenly Father is that He is a diverse God, otherwise He would not make such diverse people!  If there is anything God DID NOT create in our world, it is normal.  There are no "normal people", there are unique individuals. God created individuals and He created individuals to have a relationship with him and to live in fellowship with one another. Wow.

God you are an awesome God! You trump every single other deity that ever tried to take Your place, especially all the Greek gods in Percy and the Olympians or whatever that film is called.

To my Dad in heaven and my Dad on earth: Happy Father's Day!!!

Star Wars: KOTOR and TOR Part I- Introductions

KOTOR stands for Knights of the Old Republic and TOR stands for The Old Republic. KOTOR is a Star Wars video game designed for the PC and X-Box that tells the tale of the end of the Jedi Civil War, which happened 4,000 years before Episode IV: A New Hope. TOR is the new MMORPG, which is the sequel to KOTOR and KOTOR II- The Sith Lords. It takes place 300 years after KOTOR I and 3700 years before A New Hope and tells of the war between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic.

KOTOR is my favourite Star Wars game of all time. I have played numerous Star Wars games from the Empire Strikes Back on the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) to Star Wars Empire at War. The KOTOR franchise came out when Star Wars games were on the one-way course to disaster unless something was quickly. KOTOR and Empire at War redeemed Star Wars RPGs (KOTOR) and RTS's (Empire at War/EaW) because they provided everything that their respecitve genres offered with a good Star Wars twist. KOTOR was eventually surpassed by the Force Unleashed but the Force Unleashed is more of a plat form game then a role playing game. For those who don't know, a platform game is like Mario Brothers- it is very linear and you usually play in one world and have to complete many quests, and many of them don't follow a plot. You can read all about the history of Star Wars games on IGN's History of Star Wars Games.

Plot lines
In order to get a better idea of things you can check out the Historical Time Line Videos that Bioware sends out periodically. It tells the story of the Old Republic, which is the MMO they are building, in order for us to understand the back story of it. Two of the back stories are KOTOR I and KOTOR II.




Prologue to KOTOR I



In Star Wars spirituality revolves around the Force, an energy field that is created by all living things. The force has two sides- the light side and the dark side. The light side is used by the resisting of base passions such as anger, and hatred. The embracing of those emotions is how the dark side is called upon. The Jedi and Sith have been fighting against each other for centuries in the Star Wars Universe. Basically every full scale war, including the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War of the films, are about Jedi fighting against the Sith. Most of the time the Sith are the instigators, but in the case of the Galactic Civil War the Jedi were. In the Old Republic era the Jedi/Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic are on the light side of the force, while the Sith and the Sith Empire are on the darkside of the force. 

The prologue of KOTOR is the tale of Darth Revan and Darth Malak's fall to the darkside and the beginning the Jedi Civil War.  Darth Revan and his apprentice Darth Malak rebelled against the Jedi Council when the Mandalorians, a people group that believes battle and fighting are a way of life and the only means of self improvement, attacked the Republic.

The Jedi Knights chose to not aide the Republic right away because they believed there was more to the Mandalorians' attack then meets the eye. Even though the Jedi advised caution, the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak believed that the Mandalorians had to be stopped before they could cause more destruction. So, they rallied a number of Jedi to their cause and started to win battle after battle until Malachor V when the Mandalorians were defeated. During the Mandalorian wars they started to show signs of falling to dark side, such as despising weakness and using ferocious tactics. Revan also studied Sith teachings when he visited the Trayus Academy at Malachor V, and showed them to Malak. 


At the end of the war they went into Deep Space in order to destroy the remnants of the Mandalorians. What they found, however, was the Sith Empire reborn on Dromund Kaas and were corrupted by the Dark Emperor of the Sith. The Sith Empire was planning to return to known space to extract vengeance against the Republic and the Jedi Order for destroying them during the Great Hyperspace War centuries ago. After corrupting Revan and Malak, the Emperor sent them back into Republic space to find the Star Forge, a space station that was created millenia ago by the old Rakatan Empire.This machine is technology fused with the dark side and is able to be both a weapon and factory at the same time. Revan and Malak were to track down the Star Maps scattered on five planets- Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban- in order to extract the vengeance of the Sith Empire on the Republic and the Jedi Order centuries ahead of schedule. 


Revan and Malak, now Darth Revan and Darth Malak,  returned in secret to unknown space in order to track down the star maps and find the Star forge. It was not until Revan and Malak found the Star Forge and created a mass army that they officially returned to known space, declared themselves Dark Lords of the Sith, which started the Jedi Civil War. All the Jedi that were with them in deep space and all their forces were also corrupted by the dark side. Revan re-established the Sith Academy on the Sith world of Korriban in order to train people in the ways of the Sith and the dark side and used the Star Forge's system as a base where Revan and/or Malak could bring captured Jedi in order to corrupt them to the dark side or kill them. 


By this time Revan and Malak had no intention of doing the Emperor's will. Instead they planned to build their own Sith Empire and eventually destroy the Sith Empire they found in Deep Space  when they finished conquering the Republic. The lust for power that Revan and Malak had started to cause tension between the two, and eventually sealed their Empire's doom.


When the Jedi- lead by Bastila Shan- lured Revan and Malak into a fight, Malak betrayed his master by firing on Revan's ship after the Jedi strike team was on it in order to capture Revan. Malak's plan failed, however, and both Bastila Shan and Revan survived. Barely. Revan was almost dead but Bastila used the force to preserve his life. When Bastila brought Revan before the Jedi Council, the Council decided to erase his memory and reprogram him with a new identity. In later articles I will discuss the morality behind their choice as in doing so they made Revan into a Republic soldier in order to slowly but surely extract his memories out. They could do this because a force bond formed between Bastila and Revan when she saved his life.


Knights of the Old Republic/KOTOR


KOTOR starts a year after the event on Revan's ship. Revan is now a Republic Soldier on the Endar Spire and completely ignorant of his past self. Through the course of his travels memories start to surface of his fight with Bastila and the location of the Star Maps. During the travels the council re-trains him as a Jedi but fails to inform him that he is re-learning the Jedi ways or that he is really Darth Revan. Revan does not find out until he and Bastila, along with the Republic Soldier, Carth Onasi, are captured on the Leviathan. Revan runs into Malak during the escape attempt and is informed by his former apprentice about his true self, which is confirmed by Bastila. 


Now, Bastila is captured by Malak and falls to the dark side after Malak's tortures. The end of the game is really up to the player, but canonically Bastila tries to bring Revan to the darkside but Revan refuses. On the Star Forge Revan fights Bastila, although she is the instigator of the fight that occurs before she tries to turn Revan and the fight that happens on the Star Forge, and Revan then moves on to defeat Malak.


A more thorough plot-line for KOTOR is found on KOTOR's Wookiepedia page and in this video:

I will elaborate on my opinions about Revan's choices as well as the Jedi councils' choice to erase Revan's memories in another article. I want to give you guys some time to read the Wookiepedia article first.

Knights of the Old Republic II

KOTOR II is the tale of the Jedi Exile, who is canonically female. She was one of the Jedi who followed Revan and Malak to fight in the Mandalorian Wars, but was the only one to come back and answer for her disobedience of the Jedi Council after the war. The sentence for her was exile and she ended up touring the Outer Rim during her exile for 5 years.  Wookiepedia has an article and the plot line for this game too. 

The Knights of the Old Republic II is really a filler between the first game and the MMO. The exile's journeys defeated the other Sith factions leftover from Revan's Sith Empire, including the Sith Triumvirate. Once they were defeated the Republic breathed a sigh  of relief... Bad idea as the Exile left to find Revan and help him destroy the Sith Empire. The Republic should have heeded both the warnings of the Exile and Revan that there was a greater evil than Malak or the Sith Triumvirate out there and prepared for the Sith Empire's return over the 300 years between Knights of the Old Republic and the Old Republic, but they didn't.

I plan on critiquing A LOT of what happens in the KOTOR games and the storyline because there are a lot of things to critique, such as the actions of the Jedi Order and the Republic to the ending of  KOTORII. In the next blog articles I'll be doing that but I thought I would give you guys an introduction to the franchise  before diving immediately into the issues.

Introduction to Theology and Bible Study

In my last post I talked about theology and the importance of owning it. After writing that and thinking over what I said for a couple of days, I began to realize that not all of you know much about theology. , As I said before, theology is the study or discourse of God. Because everybody has their own set of beliefs regarding spirituality and the way the world works, everyone has their own theological beliefs. Owning one's theology means knowing what you believe about God, and that includes whether or not you believe He exists, and being able to articulate it in a coherent manner. It also involves more than just simply knowing the Bible, because there are a lot of people that "know the Bible" but don't know it in a way that coincides with orthodox Christianity (orthodox does not mean Eastern Orthodox but it means correct Christian beliefs that were decided upon between 100 and 1000 AD).

A lot of Christians have a bad habit of doing is saying that they only need the Bible as the foundation for their faith. This belief explains why a lot of the books I read by evangelicals make a lot of theological statements, cleverly disguised as biblical/scriptural statements. Don't get me wrong, the Bible is the foundation of the Christian faith as it is Christian Scripture but the Bible requires interpretation and it is unclear about a lot of things. A lot of Christians that practice the belief of only the Bible do not know how to properly study the Bible and interpret A LOT passages incorrectly... Oh, I actually meant they interpret Bible verses incorrectly. The reason for my correction is that my fellow brothers and sisters have a bad habit of yanking a single Bible verse out of its context because it says exactly what they want. In doing so they have turned God's Word into their word so to speak and miss the real message behind a passage. Hence why I no longer read books by a lot of people who have not had some kind of post Christian education. Sorry people like Sharon Jaynes, but a lot Bible verses you use in your books are taken out of context and are interpreted incorrectly. Perhaps you should consult Gordon D. Fee's and Douglas Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All its Worth or Duvall & Hays, Grasping God’s Word, 2nd before you write your next book (or your next Girlfriends in God devotion). By the way, its not just Mrs. Jaynes that does this but she's one example that is well known to Christian women all over the world, and I figure I'd give them the heads up.

This is why theology is important. Many of the church fathers and theologians that have come and gone before us have studied the Bible and have formalized through the Spirit's guidance about what is Orthodox Christianity, and what is not. Not only are their writings helpful in interpreting the Bible properly, but they also helpful in correcting unorthodox beliefs.

You do not have to go to Bible College to own your theology or to learn how to do inductive Bible Study. There are many books that are written for the non-academic audience that cover all of the doctrines of Christian theology. A couple of examples are Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson and The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity Diversity by Roger E Olson. You can also go learn how to do Inductive Bible Study at different churches. For example, the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa is doing a lesson on Inductive Bible Study.

Owning your theology and proper biblical theology helped to solidify my faith and gave it a healthy intellectual side. Further more, it contributed to my decision to go into the academic stream of higher Christian education. It also strengthens your relationship with God as theology is able to describe God in a way that the Bible cannot do on its own. How does it do that? Well go grab a theology book and see for yourself!

Welcome and Introductions

I am a 20 year-old Bible College student living in Canada. The purpose of this blog is for me to talk about what is happening in various areas that are of interest to me, such as the Christian faith and the video and computer gaming industry, as well as other things that I take interest in as I go about my daily activities.

Starting in September I will be taking the third year of my Bachelor of Theology program. As a theology student, I have found myself drawn to biblical and theological studies from all the course I have taken. I have also felt a strong call towards women's rights and equal opportunity for women in all church leadership positions. The more I study, the more I feel God drawing me to these three areas simultaneously, as well as maturing my personal and professional convictions. God is also developing my theology, or causing me to own my theology.

Owning one's theology is something that is important and goes beyond personal Bible study. Theology is really the study of or talking about God. Owning one's theology is knowing what you believe about God, the universe, the doctrines of the religion they follow, and being able to articulate it. It even includes whether you believe there is a God or not. Therefore, even atheists and agnostics have their own theology. Because I am a Christian, owning my theology means knowing and being able to articulate my beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, the Church, and other various teachings about Jesus. Not only a large part of my academic studies, it is also a part of my world view. I find that the study of theology also enhances the study and memorization of Scripture because not only is the Word of God imprinted in my mind, but I also better understand what I am reading.

I am also a video and computer game player, aka a gamer. I have been playing electronic games since I was 10 years old when I received my first Gameboy Colour with a Pokemon Yellow Gameboy Colour Cartridge. I play a variety of video games from Role Playing Games (RPG) to Real Time Strategy (RTS), and many other genres in between. I am also able to play on a variety of consoles, but my two main ones are Nintendo DS and PC (Personal Computer). My favourite video games to play are Star Wars, Pokemon, Sid Meier's Civilization; but I am very flexible and can work my way around anything with a controller/mouse and keyboard. When I am not playing video games, I am learning about the industry. Currently I follow IGN, Game Spot, Electric Playground, and Reviews on the Run. I also follow PC Gamer magazines and Nintendo Powerhouse. Some times if a magazine has a video game character on the front cover or talks about the latest console, I will gravitate towards it.

One thing that makes me stand out from the crowd when it comes to gaming is that I am one of the very few female gamers who does not play the stereotypical feminine video games. I will never be a girlie-girl and I will always proudly choose Supreme Commander over Hannah Montanna. Along with discussing theological and Church issues I will be talking about the video game industry in this blog.

Finally, I will also be discussing issues in Christian media. I have found the Christian media industry to be struggling these days with providing products to followers of the Christian faith that are "as good" as the secularized counterparts. So, I will be talking a lot about that too. I will also review some of the Christian attempts at making Christian-based and Bible-based video games, computer games, and online games. Yes, they are out there. Some of them are worth playing and others fall flat.

So, this is the plan for the blog. I hope all of my readers will enjoy it and I look forward to posting again soon.