A Very Short Universalist Thought

Since this is something of a scandalous topic among evangelicals, I'd like to make several disclaimers, which might turn out to be longer than the actual content of the post:

1. Universalism, in this post, means the idea that eventually, in some way, every person will be reconciled to God, and doesn't necessarily imply anything about the timing or manner of that reconciliation;
2. I do not at this point call myself a universalist;
3. I do not intend the following to be a watertight argument, or a proof-text, or anything nearly so convincing, only a thought.

So, with that out of the way, here's the very short thought. Actually it's not even a thought, just a couple of well-known Bible verses that I'd never considered in relation to each other, but did so today and found the exercise interesting. Here they are (you might be familiar with them):

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
   and gave him the name that is above every name,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

That's it.

Lorikeets!

I'm a sucker for parrots of any description - just something about the awkward, lumbering but endearing gait they have when they walk around. Here's a couple of pictures I took today of some rainbow lorikeets playing in the native flora outside our unit:

Christian Ethics and Modelling Heaven

One of the complaints you hear levelled against Christianity every so often is the one about how 'there's too many rules and stuff, man, I don't wanna sacrifice my freedom to do whatever I want, you know'. (Perhaps uncharitably phrased, but you get my drift.) And at first glance, for a religion claiming that following rules won't get you to heaven, there do seem to be a lot of rules.

What I Hate I Do: a Gramscian reading of Romans 7:15-25

 I'm no Marxist, but I've always had a soft spot for the ideas of Antonio Gramsci. For those who, unlike myself,  do not inhabit a university Arts faculty full of communists and other haters of freedom, Gramsci was an Italian Marxist thinker, imprisoned and later executed by Mussolini's fascists. 

The ultimate response...

to any internet argument about creationism versus evolution:

Jesus punches a T-Rex in the head. 'Nuff said. I found this here, click if you're the slightly irreverent shirt-buying type.