Redeemer's Rise Campaign

Posted on June 5, 2016 by timlyg

I do not know what's the big deal about this program. We've received the RISE Mission Investor Guide (about 44 pages). It is basically trying to persuade us to join, probably by financial support is preferred. Lots of $$$ mentioned. Some interesting facts are listed:
Hunter College Rent (2000 capacity auditorium + 20 classrooms + fellowship hall), one day a week:
2012: $932k / yr
2016: $1.37 million / yr
2020: $2 million / yr, by an estimate of 47% increase.
W83 (7 days a week, annual cost):
$1.73 million: Mortgage +
$350k: Operating costs (after rental revenue)

The funding is for all sorts of programs with focus on planting more churches.

the word "Gospel" is thrown in the book very frequently. The bold statement: Church planting is the most effective method of evangelism [pg. 18]. This couldn't be more wrong. A church certainly has evangelical effect, but it is neither the most effective (preaching the Gospel directly is the most effective), nor a method (Start meditating on the Body of Christ).

Lots of statements from those who are "IN" saying that their goal is to spread love. One could just remove the word Jesus or God and their statements still make sense, in the liberal sense.

Dr. Keller on pg. 37: "... it would be a miracle for an orthodox church like Redeemer..." I think Redeemer is hardly orthodox now. But I do believe miracles happen here.

A few weeks ago, during the service, they, including Dr. Keller liked to use "gift-matching" as incentive. Frankly I am skeptical of many who gives, including the gift-matchers. Do they really know what they are giving their money for? Or do they just want to show off (Yes, even anonymous givers can be showing off). There's an good article from Givewell.org criticizing donation matching. The excuse of "encouraging" people to give is utter nonsense, not to mention this creates corruption in fellowship among brothers and sisters.

My next question for Tim Keller during his future Q&A tweets would be: What do you think of Social Gospel?

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美国华侨移民牧师的动物保护主义精神

Posted on June 3, 2016 by timlyg

我想多半这类牧师与今天动物权力活动家大概不分两样。

不然就是想逃避困难（因为来到美国就是已经上了天堂嘛）。

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Cincinnati Zoo: Gorilla killed for boy fell into his enclosure

Posted on June 3, 2016 by timlyg

Another opportunity for the ridiculous animal activists to stand up.

Of course, the unpredictable gorillas are not necessarily harmful. Thus, hard to tell of Harambe's intention either.

Blame the parents? Maybe not.

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Logos 6 Software Installation Issue

Posted on May 30, 2016 by timlyg

I realized I have ordered Van Til's book "The Defense of the Faith", from the only place with one in digital format, and that I did not install Logos since last windows 7 installation.

To install Logos 6 is a pain. First, I had to find and download .Net Framework 4.6.1. which had to be an offline version or else the installation of the Framework won't work. Also, the Logos did not organize their site well. There is an ambiguity between what is Logos Core Engine and other Logos programs.

Download the software you need here (you must own a Logos 6 base package or the Core Engine):
LogosSetup.exe (For PC Users)     480.47 KB

LogosSetup.exe is supposedly the Core Engine. But had it installed successfully, I wouldn't have such issue. After .Net Framework 4.6.1 is installed, running LogosSetup.exe again only popped up some installation status, including DirectX detection to see if there's need of installing it, which in my case there is no need. But after all these pop ups, the installation also disappeared. Took me a while to figure out that in Windows 7, I could go check the installation logs of any setup program: (C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Temp\Logos Log Files). Then I realized that it was trying to download the offline version of Logos core which is Logos-x64.msi @ https://downloads.logoscdn.com/LBS6/Installer/6.11.0.0041/Logos-x64.msi which is around 141MB. So I got the file manually and it installed well. Now I'm ready to sleep.

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Practical Grace based vs. Practical Work Based

Posted on May 29, 2016 by timlyg

Most Christians understood that they are justified not by their works, but through their faith.

Some Christians understood that their faith to be based on God's grace alone.

Fewer still put this understanding into practice.

Example of distinction:

When one is given a credit one does not deserve,

 

one disappears before it is given one, avoiding the chance to refuse all together.
[This is the natural reaction of a work-based principle]

one accepts the credit, and then gives it to those who actually deserve such credit.
[This is the working of a grace-based principle]

Resource: When I was told about a case (David Tong), whether it be true or not I cannot verify, where he was given the honor to speak by his father on the stage, he disappeared, because he thought that there were others who were more deserving to receive such honor. I thought there was something wrong then (a few years back) but I couldn't pin point it, now I know what it is.

It is easy for us to claim that we base our foundation on Sola Gratia. Yet we need to constantly work it out into our lives beyond textbook memorization of orthodoxy.

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On taking Criticism

Posted on May 29, 2016 by timlyg

Criticism is ok. What's bad is when nobody wants to tell you what's wrong with you anymore.

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Finding Cube Root of Real Numbers

Posted on May 27, 2016 by timlyg

There is a lot of sites online showing you how to find cube root of a perfect cube, provided the cubic root is less than 1000. This method requires the memorization of 10 cubes from 1 to 10. This is easy.

The problem arises when we are really talking about finding the cube root of all real numbers. Which a lot of those websites do not claim but erroneously titled as such.

So, this project will look into this matter. It would seem that Shakuntala Devi managed to find the roots of larger perfect cubes, but the cubes must still be perfect to begin with.

Basic principle: (x+n)^3 = a, given a, find (x+n)

Attempt 1:

Let x be "left most digit" times 10^{\text{number of digits in n}} + n, where n is the rest of the digits.

Stuck at:
3x^2n + 3xn^2 + n^3 = a - x^3
RHS is easy to obtain, using the perfect cube root trick (memorize cubes from 1 to 10).
However, we need to find n, which is virtually impossible to isolate. Although, for any real, I could figure out the first two leftmost digits of the solution: \frac{a-x^3}{3xn(x+n)}. First do long division with 3x, then division by n(x+n) where n is easily found, by brute force for no more than 10 times.

Attempt 2:

let x = n, hence we need to find 2x.
To be continued...

 

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List of Erroneous Reasons in Not Believing in God

Posted on May 20, 2016 by timlyg

I am of course, referring to a Christian God.

For every item in the list, I will give a short response. This will be the project. The list:

  1. There is no God.
    Do babies cry? Yes, therefore God exists. Proven. Q.E.D. By instinct we cry to God.
    Everyone believes God exist (Romans 1). Some have just learned to be very good at not "crying".
  2. God does not care.
  3. God is too full of himself.
  4. God should not allow suffering.
  5. God is not all powerful.
  6. God is not fair.
  7. God is cruel.
  8. God is not logical.
  9. God is only for the West or Israel. Favoritism.
  10. God is made up by men.
Posted in Projects, Theologization | Leave a comment

Sixpence None the Richer

Posted on May 9, 2016 by timlyg

A band whose name is taken from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity story about a boy who bought a gift for his father with his father's sixpence. An honored feeling yet not being any richer. It was said that Letterman was stunned by this discovery when he had the band on his show but I cannot verify this.

Posted in News, Theologization, Vocabularies | Leave a comment

The Jewish Sabbath Today (journal transfer)

Posted on May 9, 2016 by timlyg

Because of the legalistic nature of it, it reminds me what Jesus said against it:

About men not made for the Sabbath...

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