I recently purchased a house, and things have been quite busy, and I have not had much time to blog. It is nice to own a home again after 4 years. Renting has its benefits and disadvantages. Owning a home has its benefits and disadvantages as well. I’m at a point where owning is more desirable.

This house is everything we have been looking for in a home, and I see myself staying there for a very long time. If nothing major happens, I may end up staying there the rest of my life. It is interesting where a person ends up in life. I never thought I’d be living in this area. I believe God is in absolute control of all things and our destinies. I live here because this is where God has decided He wants me and my family. There are plenty of Biblical texts to show that truth.

So we painted a few rooms in the house, did some intensive cleaning, steam cleaned the carpets, fixed a few things, and put up some new blinds. We mainly wanted to get the house ready for us to move into. There is a long list of projects that I want to do to upgrade the house. Also, it will be really nice to have an 1/2 acre to work on outdoors. I’ve always wanted to do some landscaping/gardening and I will now have the opportunity to do so. I am quite excited about everything.

We should be finished moving this weekend. I have some movers coming over Friday afternoon to move most of the furniture, appliances, and packed boxes. Then we will finish the rest on our own over the course of Saturday and Sunday. We have already moved a lot so far. Moving is difficult only for the simple reason that it turns your life upside down, but I am actually enjoying this move to a degree. That will give us a little over a week to get the rental deep cleaned and ready to turn back over to the owners.

The Apocalpyse Code

I just finished reading a book called The Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanegraaff. It was a book with a number of problems. I appreciate the book and Hank’s views on the End Times, but he disappointed me in his approach to the material.

He made a lot of good points in opposition to the pre-trib Dispensational view of those things that will occur just before Jesus returns at His Second Coming. Though, he does not delve into scripture to explain his own views, nor does he examine a lot of other scriptures that support God’s work in establishing the Jews back into their land or those things that will occur just before Christ’s return.

Hank discussed the proper way to study the Bible called Hermeneutics and encourages the reader to study the Bible correctly. I really appreciate those points. I did not appreciate Hank’s harsh sarcasm, or his severe criticism of those with opposing views to his own. Some of his criticism leaned toward and implied personal criticism in my opinion. He seemed to cut and paste specific passages he wrote in a number of locations in the book. There were a number of times where I felt like I was reading the same exact text over again.

I have been studying the prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, the dispersion of the Jews among the nations by the Romans, and the Second Coming for a long time. I think it is very important to separate the prophecies concerning the times that occured in 70 AD, 135 AD, and the time of the Second Coming. We need to carefully divide the prophecies for the first destruction under the Assyrians (Israel) and the Babylonians (Judah and Jerusalem), from those prophecies of the second destruction and dispersion and the Second Coming of Christ. There are also the prophecies concerning the return of the Jews to the land of Israel that we need to correctly interpret and understand in light of history and the future.

Here is another review of the book.

I personally take an independent view of Eschatology and do not consider myself in any of the specific theological camps on this issue at this time. I have studied a lot of the different viewpoints, and I am investigating different aspects of the issue. I do know one thing, there is a day chosen by God where Jesus Christ will return to the earth and fulfill His ministry to God as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and nothing happens on this planet outside of God’s will.

I was talking with my wife not long ago about the unbelieving world noticing that something unpleasant is beginning to happen in regard to the Earth. They think it is caused by global warming. I think global warming (if it is actually occuring) is all part of God’s plan to bring things to an end and culimnate in the Second Coming of Christ. God uses the sinful choices of humanity to bring about His plans as we see clearly in the text of scripture, and God using our choices to pollute and destroy the earth to the point where it can’t support life, to bring His wrath is justice. It is right for God to use global warming to judge those who destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18). Sin has consequences, and we suffer the consequences of our choices.

Summer 2008 Movie Reviews (May/June)

Speed Racer (3/5): Very bright colors, which gave me a head ache. Overall I thought it was fair, and the story was acceptable. The racing parts were great, and the racing was all I needed. Though some of the shots were way too fast. The kid and monkey in it were much funnier than the cartoon. I didn’t like the little boy flipping off the bad guy with my five year old sitting next to me. I watched Speed cartoon as a 3-5 year old growing up, so of course I would go see the film version.

The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian (5/5): Utterly fantastic. They did a great job with this book, and it was at least as good as the first film. I am looking forward to the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which has the green light for production no matter how Caspian faired. I thought the acting was excellent, and the kids did a great job in reprising their roles. The moral of the story was done very well, the cinematography was great, and the additions to the story were good. I didn’t like that the enemy artillery didn’t seem to have any effect, so that would be the only complaint. They should have just left that out. The sword fights were excellent. Everyone who enjoys fantasy should see this one.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2/5): Other than getting to find out what happened to Indy after the first 3, getting to see him in his life a bit outside of adventuring, this one was absolutely terrible. I was highly disappointed in the main story. I hated the “old man” jokes. I hated that the “skull” was in the movie from the very beginning. I hated the climax of the film. There was zero point in what happened. I really liked the nuclear test scene other than it was completely unrealistic. Raiders was great, Temple was terrible, Crusade was good, Skull is just plain disappointing. George Lucas really should let other people write his scripts. He could tell them what the general story is about, but he really does a poor job as a script writer. He is a good director, a good idea guy, but not a writer. SW Episodes 1-3 should have taught him that.

Iron Man (3/5): A descent super hero film. It was formulaic of course. Where in the heck did the bad guy get the time to construct his own gargantuan Iron Man suit? That was just stupid, and of course it was bigger and tougher than Stark’s. Silly.

Kung Fu Panda (4/5): A great animated film. I really enjoyed this one, and I thought it was very well done. I don’t have any complaints except one. I don’t like it when a person with zero martial arts experience trains for 5 minutes in a film and is suddenly an expert martial artist. It was funny, thoughtful, and had great action.

The Happening (2/5): What tha!? M. Night gave us the solution way too early when the crazy hot dog, plant growing guy told us. It was a good premise, but poorly executed. Of course it turns out that somehow right at the moment when the main stars decide to be together for the sake of love, when “they can’t talk, get disoriented, and kill themselves moment” that “The Happening” decides to stop. One word: stupid! What is M. Night’s message? Stop destroying the earth or it will destroy us, we kill the earth we kill ourselves, and sacrificial love for one another will save us. I’m sure we could find more meaning, but I don’t feel like it. I like that M. Night’s characters are whacky. The train fellow lied when he said they lost contact with “everyone.” Oh yeah, another point M. Night made is the fact we don’t care about one another will lead to our destruction. The best point of that would be the shootings at the house that has people, but they refuse to help our protagonists. No twist at the end, which was good. I found the film very anti-climactic, but it had some great cinematography.

The Incredible Hulk (3/5): Descent super hero film, a bit formulaic like all the other Marvel/Super Hero films out there. I enjoyed Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner, and I really enjoyed Liv Tyler. Tim Roth did a great job with his character as well. He was the epitome of those who love violence. This film was much more true to the comic than the first Hulk. That one was good, but it was more outside of the source.

Wall-E (5/5): Highly anticipating this one at the end of the month. I’ve read the story book with my boy, so I think the film is going to be really good. I love that Pixar comes out with fresh and new ideas for movies. They make films with originality and I give them two big thumbs up. I will be there for Wall-E on opening day. Ratatouille was one of my favorite films last summer. I give this one 5 out of 5 just for the fresh, original story. If it is a bad film, I will reprise that score.

Peace.