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The Carmel Mission. Happy Sunday!

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source

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How do atheists try and disprove God?

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Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God WSJ Op Ed by Eric Mataxes

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A text that may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist is set to be published.

Wow, this is awesome

The papyrus, set to be published later this year, is dated to before 90 AD

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http://www.newsweek.com/response-newsweek-bible-299440

Wow, impressive response, hopefully people who read the first article read this one!

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1. Jesus will come from the line of Abraham.

2. Jesus’ mother will be a virgin.

3. Jesus will be a descendent of Isaac and Jacob.

4. Jesus will be born in the town Bethlehem.

5. Jesus will be called out of Egypt.

6. Jesus will be a member of the tribe of Judah.

7. Jesus will enter the temple. This is important because the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and was never rebuilt.

8. Jesus will be from the lineage of King David.

9. Jesus’ birth will be accompanied with great suffering and sorrow.

10. Jesus will live a perfect life, die by crucifixion, resurrect from death, ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of God.

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What is God's purpose for your life?

Start by looking at what you love.

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One of if not the oldest image of Christ has been recently uncovered in Spain.

Link.

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Soft Difference, Merislav Volf, Professor of Divinity at Yale

What as Christians can we do to engage the culture we live in?  This quote by Yale Professor of Divinity Merislav Volf, demonstrates the Christian attitude. This was particularly relevant for me living in San Francisco, but I bet it would apply anywhere.

Soft Difference 18

"Notice the significance of the new birth for Christian social identity.

Christians do not come into their social world from outside seeking either to accommodate to their new home (like second generation immigrants would), shape it in the image of the one they have left behind (like colonizers would), or establish a little haven in the strange new world reminiscent of the old (as resident aliens would). They are not outsiders who either seek to become insiders or maintain strenuously the status of outsiders.

Christians are the insiders who have diverted from their culture by being born again. They are by definition those who are not what they used to be, those who do not live like they used to live. Christian difference is therefore not an insertion of something new into the old from outside, but a bursting out of the new precisely within the proper space of the old.

The question of how to live in a non-Christian environment, then, does not translate simply into the question of whether one adopts or rejects the social practices of the environment.  This is the question outsiders ask, who have the luxury of observing a culture from a vantage point that is external to that culture.  Christians do not have such a vantage point since they have experienced a new birth as inhabitants of a particular culture.  Hence they are in an important sense insiders.  As those who are a part of the environment from which they have diverted by having been born again and whose difference is therefore internal to that environment, Christians ask, "Which beliefs and practices of the culture that is ours must we reject now that our self has been reconstituted by new birth?  Which can we retain?  What must we reshape to reflect better the values of God's new creation?"

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I was looking through the Reasons to Believe website reasons.org and found a cool article on biblical prophecy, take a look!

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Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric lifestyle....While they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food but not their wives. They are “in the flesh”, but do not live “according to the flesh”. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted. They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything. They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated. They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life....Those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility.

The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus around the 2nd Century A.D.

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(via x)

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Cetinje, Montenegro (by Miki Badt)

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The terrorist group issued a warning for all Christians to either convert, pay a special tax, leave, or be killed by Saturday.

ISIS not only has burned the Church, a video posted on Youtube July 9th showed a tomb being destroyed by a sledgehammer that was "almost certainly" that of the Biblical Prophet Jonah according to government officials.

Please pray for the Christians and Shiite Muslims that are being persecuted by ISIS

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stockholm library (by x)