A Good Question

A friend from church posed the following question on his Facebook Wall:

If the love of God is unconditional, why is there a hell?

Here's my slightly abridged reply:

(...)

Regarding God's love, it's unconditional because it's not dependent on anything we do. We shouldn't confuse God's sovereignty in loving who he pleases with the quality of that love. What's more, there's no place in scripture where we're instructed to share a "negative gospel" - i.e. explicate to unbelievers that a set number of them will never be redeemed. The names on the roll of the redeemed is God's business, not ours. The following Spurgeon quote says it better than I can:
" I remember Rowland Hill’s reply, when somebody said that he ought to preach only to the elect. “Very well,” he said, “next Sunday morning, chalk them all on the back and when you have done that, I will preach to them.” But the chalking of them on the back is the difficulty—we cannot do that and, as we cannot do that, the best way is for us to leave our God to carry out the purposes of His distinguishing Grace in His own effectual way and not attempt to do what we certainly can never accomplish! There, scatter a handful of Seed “by the wayside.” Even if the birds of the air devour it, there is plenty more where that came from and it would be a pity for us to leave any portion unsown because we were miserly and stingy with our Master’s Seed!" - Charles Spurgeon Sermon# 2843, The Seed by the Wayside, Luke 8:5

One can only hope this is a hoax

Yeah, but where will the equipment receiving the tax credit be manufactured?

Something tells me China's economy will get a bigger boost from this than ours will.

But Hey, Our EPS are up 33% Y/Y!

Offshored Manufacturing - More than Just "out dated" Wrench Turning Jobs at Stake

Hat tip to Andy K. for this link. My 2 cents: 1) Clearly, Andy Grove's been reading my blog. LOL... 2) The risks of lost institutional manufacturing knowledge are well known, but Grove makes an excellent point re: the link between manufacturing and innovation.

Hat Tip to The Lone Conservative: And interesting lecture on motivation...

Well, duh...

Tough Customers...

...and unreasonable customers can be difficult to distinguish. The way to tell them apart is by their reaction to your best efforts. Tough customers will find a degree of satisfaction in your having done the best to solve their problem. Unreasonable customers will not.

Thankful

Just feeling thankful for two men who taught me to think openly and critically: Emmett Lierly and CS Lewis.

Aphorisms of the Day

Even a perfectly good pair of shoes will have at least two holes in them.

Knowledge tempers zeal as heat tempers steel.

Rando Thought of the Day

Any institution, be it political, religious, or economic, that does not take into account the true nature of humanity is doomed to fail, fail catastrophically, and cause much suffering in the process.

A Thought on Pragmatic Politics

The beautifully insidious thing about taking a pragmatic approach to politics is that you can justify your decisions based on postulation rather than principle.

True resolve is usually silent...

Robert Rules!

QOTD from Henry M. Robert:

Where there is no law, but every man
does what is right in his own eyes,
there is the least of real liberty.

File under "I" for "I Told You So"

More than one way to be wrong

I find it incredibly frustrating that many conservative Christians feel justified in stomping on the feelings of others in their zeal for moral justice while many liberal Christians feel justified in stomping on the feelings of others in their zeal for social justice. Isn't kindness a moral virtue? Can we ever expect human beings to treat each other justly if those who are supposedly leading the way can't even be decent to each other?

A person won't change because a self-righteous person condemned his or her behavior. They will change, however, if they are lovingly led to a knowledge of the truth - that morality matters, that justice matters, that people matter. Loving God and loving our neighbor aren't nice sentiments that we should try to hang on to as we "do the real work of building God's kingdom" (pompous tone intended). They are the only means by which we can serve God and through which we can foster a moral and just society.

Patently Obvious Thoughts for the Day

You can't guide others where you haven't been and you can't lead them where you aren't willing to go.

Two implications of this:

1. If I want to be the spiritual leader of my family, I can't just point the way. "Hey, you kids go on up out of Egypt to the promised land. Pop's gonna stay here and hang out". I have to go on ahead, away from the safety of being in the group, and face the risks of loneliness and isolation that come with breaking new ground and being misunderstood.

2. I can't be so arrogant as to think that a) I will be the "expert" in everything, since my wife will be ahead of me in some regards as will my kids as they reach an age where they begin to have experiences I never did, or b)God hasn't already been there. He is the true Leader, and my job is to follow and help my family do the same.

iPad 2010 = Newton 1993

'Nuff said.

Climate Change?

Why am I not surprised by this?