choky

5 more hrs and i'll be entering into the hall for the GPS exam. After surveying the readings, i kinda feel a bit sympathetic towards SM goh chok tong. between Lee and lee, i think he has tried various (slightly revolutionary) ways to change certain cultures within the cabinet while serving his stop-gap tenure as prime minister. Not so wise to put in the details here, but i guess he is now into my personal list of singapore mavericks after lim chin siong, ong eng guan and ong teng cheong.

that said, i don't think i'll do so well for this module. i dunno why. maybe i am just a bit sick of exams after 3 years.

exams...

S2249
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF SINGAPORE
29/11/2006 (Wed)
5:00 PM
2 h
MPSH5

PS4208
THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
04/12/2006 (Mon)
9:00 AM
2 h
AS3-02-12/15

PS4216
THE STUDY OF WAR
06/12/2006 (Wed)
1:00 PM
2 h
MPSH2-A

Hmmm... think I overstudy the level 4s, and totally under study the level 2. Think I only went for 2 lectures for that one. Ya ya papaya-ness creeps in when you are in a sea of year 1s, and you tell pple you are doing that module cos you need to graduate. Argh. Pride comes before a fall. Better be less ya ya for the next 3 days...

Back to first principle again

Been checking out John Piper's website for biblical meat cos e-sword (www.e-sword.net) doesn't seem to have a mac version, or either that I can't find a way to open the file.

Pretty thought provoking thought below by Piper on the use of language in bible.
(From http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2005/1282_Thoughts_on_the_Sufficiency_of_Scripture_What_It_Does_and_Doesnt_Mean/)

Thoughts on the Sufficiency of Scripture: What It Does and Doesn't Mean

My biographical message at the pastors’ conference this year was on Athanasius who was born in A. D. 298. So I spent a good bit of time studying the doctrinal disputes of the fourth century. The main dispute was over the deity of Christ. Arius (and the Arians) said that the Son of God was a creature and did not always exist. Athanasius defended the eternal deity of the Son and helped win that battle with the wording of the Council of Nicaea: “We believe in . . . the Son of God . . . of the essence of the Father, God of God, and Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

One surprising fact that I did not expect to find was that the heretics protested most loudly over the non-scriptural language of the orthodox creed. They pointed out that the phrases, “of one essence with the Father,” and “one substance with the Father” were not in the Bible. The heretics demanded “no creed but the Bible” precisely so that they could use biblical language to evade biblical truth. For example, they would happily call Christ “Son of God,” and then argue that, like all sons, he must have had a beginning. So to my surprise one form of the doctrine of the “sufficiency of Scripture” was used to undermine Scripture’s truth.

This strategy of evading biblical truth by using only biblical language has been used over and over in the history of the church. For example, in 1719 over a hundred Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist ministers gathered in London to deal with the problem that some ministers, after reading Samuel Clark, refused to sign the Trinitarian creeds of their denominations. They had become essentially Arian. What was the key issue? “The technical issue was whether it was enough for ministers to promise to follow only the Scriptures” (Mark Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003], p. 43). The Arians insisted on “no creed but the Bible,” or no language but Bible language. The vote was 57-53 against traditional Trinitarians. Again a form of the “sufficiency of Scripture” had been used to undermine the truth of Scripture.

There are many today who would demand “no creed but the Bible” the same way the Arians did. But we should learn from history that biblical language is not enough when it comes to defending the meaning of biblical language. R. P. C. Hanson explained the process like this: “Theologians of the Christian Church were slowly driven to a realization that the deepest questions which face Christianity cannot be answered in purely biblical language, because the questions are about the meaning of biblical language itself” (R. P. C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy [Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1988], p. xxi).

What does this imply for the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture? That doctrine is based mainly on 2 Timothy 3:15-17 and Jude 1:3.

The sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. . . . Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

In other words, the Scriptures are sufficient in the sense that they are the only (“once for all”) inspired and (therefore) inerrant words of God that we need, in order to know the way of salvation (“make you wise unto salvation”) and the way of obedience (“equipped for every good work”).

The sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that the Scripture is all we need to live obediently. To be obedient in the sciences we need to read science and study nature. To be obedient in economics we need to read economics and observe the world of business. To be obedient in sports we need to know the rules of the game. To be obedient in marriage we need to know the personality of our spouse. To be obedient as a pilot we need to know how to fly a plane. In other words, the Bible does not tell us all we need to know in order to be obedient stewards of this world.

The sufficiency of Scripture means that we don’t need any more special revelation. We don’t need any more inspired, inerrant words. In the Bible God has given us, we have the perfect standard for judging all other knowledge. All other knowledge stands under the judgment of the Bible even when it serves the Bible. For example, the English language serves the Bible by making it accessible to readers of English. But even as English does this, it stands under the Bible and is governed by the Bible. So the English word “yes” cannot translate the Greek word for “no.” The Bible is sufficient to prevent that misuse of English.

In this way the Bible is served by our extra-biblical knowledge in many ways. For example, the word “ant” occurs twice in the Bible (Proverbs 6:6; 30:25). It is never defined. The Bible expects us to know what an ant is from our experience. But if we say that the lesson of the ant is that we should all be lazy, the Bible is sufficient to prevent that error.

So it is with language in doctrinal disputes. Non-biblical language serves the Bible by ruling out some meanings and including others. The word “trinity” and the phrase “one substance with the Father” are extra-biblical terms. But they contain essential biblical truth. To affirm with extra-biblical language that God is “one essence in three persons” (=trinity) and that the Son is “one substance with the Father” is more biblical than to use biblical language to call Christ God’s creature. The sufficiency of Scripture does not dictate the language we use to interpret the Bible; rather it governs the meaning of the language we use. For that it is wholly sufficient.

Submitted utterly to Scripture with you,

Pastor John

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

The Three Crosses, 1653, Rembrandt

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

Forbid it Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ my God
All the vain things that charm me most
I sacrifice them to His blood

See, from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were a present far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all

I guess sometimes the art of living in a desert storm is to focus on the next oasis of living water, and not on the parched environment itself. And I don't mean dryness in the seasonal sense. Somehow, I think it is easier to live knowing that one is perpetually living in the posture of a pilgrim in the desert, than to delude oneself that s/he has arrived in some periodic sense. Perhaps Christ doesn't want people to accept life's status quo. The Cross is too deep and profound for that. And I don't mean the depth of the Cross should necessarily lead to a greater commitment towards church activities. The praxis of 'church within the walls' prayers makes it hard for me to understand the Church in the wider sense. Am I doing it for the sake of doing it? Or have I really understood why I'm doing it? Maybe in the eyes of many, that has been translated to a perception of apathy or indifference towards church. But I hope people can be more understanding towards the minds of the apathetic - his or her genealogy of apathy so to speak - before judgments are passed through actions, inactions, thoughts, speech acts and gazes.

haha

Your True Birth Month Is January

Loyal Social Logical Easily jealous Loves children Rather reserved Highly attentive Likes to criticize Needs close friends Ambitious and serious Smart, neat and organized Hardworking and productive Loves to teach and be taught Quiet unless excited or tensed Sensitive and has deep thoughts Knows how to make others happy Searches for the greatest romance Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds Romantic but has difficulties expressing love Always looking at people's flaws and weaknesses

What's Your True Birth Month?

january makes me look meek and mean at the same time!

Captured by asia minor and mesopotamia

Recently, I had a bit of time to just relax and chill after clearing my essays. Decided to check out this super dummy guide map that I bought in germany, which traces the history of middle east from the biblical times to the modern period. Actually decided to sit down and spent some time to find out the whos and whats of the egyptian empire, the persian empire, the roman empire, the byzantine empire, and finally the ottoman empire. Was quite captured by the ebbs and flows of civilizations, and then i was watching a globe trekker episode on tv, which was doing a mega hit combo of all the middle eastern historical sites. It is amazing how people honor their respective monotheist religions through great battles, monuments and culture. Makes me feel quite inspired to ask terry nardin later if it is possible to do an ethical inquiry into christian-judea and arab-muslim just war theories if i can get my masters scholarship. I think that will help me to clear up a bit of my headache when it comes to approaching morality as a theology, as a history, as a sociology and as a theory. Somehow, I think monotheistic religions are in one or another, profaned, because of the lack of systematic inquiry into the hermeneutics, jurisprudence and literary criticism concerning textual interpretations. I think there is a space for different religions to co-exist together...

kids these days

It is quite scary when you see books like Thomas Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in the nus online library system designated 'FOR NUS HIGH SCHOOL ONLY'. I had to wikipedia kuhn in order to understand his stupid book at year 4 and someone 10 years my junior is reading it too? Maybe they should throw in Habermas in their O-level social studies exam. Daniel will probably get A1 for that. ha..

Thank God for my soccer bashing cell guys who remind me every sunday that the world is not as crazy as what society wants it to be.

back to first principle

Christ In the Storm on the Lake of Galilee, 1633, Rembrandt

"Fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ." 1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself - God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

(From Utmost, Nov 10)

all in a day's work

ok, I have given up. there is just no way I can come up with a critical theory perspective in looking at human rights. i think i am academically mainstream... duh. told dr chong that i need an extension till friday morning. but i think it won't be much use, will just write according to what i know.

i'm not fretting though. i'm more interested with tom's interview with dr wong, wch wld determine my free ticket to australia. hahaha. hmm.. he warned me against doing masters in nus cos of its weak brand in helping students to get subsequent phd scholarships... double duh.

he told me to go for the big three in uk, or at least the next big three. i weighed my chances, and i think my problem is more administrative/financial than academic. maybe another problem is that i don't want to leave s'pore so soon...yet. This is like the ultimate duh to myself.

better finish edit my ism now, deadline is 12 hrs later... duh duh duh

A tribute to saddam

Tough luck for saddam. I mean he is bad, and probably he deserves the death sentence.

But here is a good 5-min summary of his life that might help you to think about who is really the criminal in world affairs.

http://www.ericblumrich.com/thanks.html

epistemological headaches

after last night's euphoria, today is quite a reality check again, as i tried to focus on my 3 remaining essays. Went to pasir ris chalet in the late morning to entertain the primary six kids, then took a twenty-buck cab ride back home, cos i was too sleepy to walk to the mrt... serious. Went to school after that to do research for my last essay. It is on theories of IR, which means many epistemological headaches. I've decided to go for the jugular and just zoom in on the primary texts of kenneth waltz (Theory of International Politics) and alexander wendt (Anarchy is what states makes of it), instead of pouring over the tonnes of secondary articles that have talked about them. Partly cos I want to have my own originality in interpreting them, but mainly cos i am lazy and don't have any more time left to understand what the rest of the world thinks about them. Although both the primary texts encompass only about 150 pages ... they are pretty tough concepts to handle. had an enjoyable dinner though, to clear my epistemological headaches. It is pressure cooker days like these that every single kind gesture by friends means a whole load.

When God speaks, He ROARS!!!!!

wow... amazing...
My walk with God hasn't been in the best of times the past 2 weeks or so, and in a way was hoping that He will speak to me in a tangible manner, tho I din really pray in that perspective. And recently I have been contemplating to go to australia with dan, ailing, james and sophie to meet pastor ian from 12 dec to 22 dec, but was a bit concerned with the finances, given that i blew quite a bit in my 7-country tour during the june holidays.

guess what? my prof emailed pema and me personally to apply for this European summer school IN canberra from 11 dec to 15 dec, cos he feel that we stand a very high chance of getting 1500 bucks from nus! wch means i can then go perth to visit pastor ian! okie... everything is not confirmed yet, but i think my prof is the one who is in charge of this summer program... so chances are pretty high. even if i dun get it, my dad is pretty ok with forking out the money for me to go perth.

But the bottomline is that i think God really blew my mind when I first read the email... the coincidence is just too much to dismiss it as coincidence. I mean... european politics has been my strength in PS, but what are the chances of having an european summer school in australia in this world? It is as bizarre as having a yale summer school in china! And once in a while, i did entertain the thought that i might get some divine money to go australia, just as how God divinely provided me with the money (and probably excuse) to go europe earlier this year, and i din expect God to reply in such a powerful fashion. i'm thoroughly humbled by His sense of power and humor.