It is my honest hope and intent that the following post will by no means bring disrespect to the persons and families of the about-to-be-mentioned. The passing away of a loved one is indeed a sensitive time, but nonetheless a part of life, and with this in mind I would like to proceed with an observation:

Within the past two weeks, and within a week of one another, two religious figures have passed away: Dr. L. Russ Bush of Southeastern Seminary, 22 January, and Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), 27 January. After attending a Friday night lecture on the Mormon view of the soul, death, and the afterlife at the local LDS stake in Wake Forest, I was interested to read how the death of their president would be presented to the public. This would be a prime opportunity to demonstrate through the death of President Hinckley their views on death and the afterlife. I expected headlines on the official LDS web site to contain some sort of religious euphemism that would hint at their beliefs, such as: “President Hinckley Has Gone to Be with the Lord” or “Hinckley Now Becomes as God Now Is.” Nothing to this effect was published, but “Beloved Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, Dies at 97.”

Call this a missed opportunity or professional journalism avoiding religious jargon, but I, honestly, was surprised. I clicked the headline to read the whole article, thinking that surely inside would be the religious language the title had forgone. “President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97…President Hinckley was known, even at the age of 97, as a tireless leader who always put in a full day at the office and traveled extensively around the world to mix with Church members, now numbering 13 million in 171 nations.” No mention of what I was looking for; but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

I wouldn’t be writing this, however, if Dr. L. Russ Bush hadn’t passed so closely to Hinckley. The title of the article written bringing the news of his passing is very different than that of Hinckley: “The Homegoing of Dr. L. Russ Bush.” “Homegoing ” says it all. Dr. Bush has not become a homemaker as Hinckley, but has gone home to be with the risen Savior. President Akin remembers Bush as “a champion and faithful warrior for the cause of Christ.” Dean of the Faculty at Southeastern, David Nelson, sums up what is contained in the article’s heading when he says, “We are truly grieved at [Bush's] passing, because he was a kind, gracious friend and leader, but of course, because of his faith in Christ, ours is a hopeful grief as we know he is in the presence of the Lord he loved.” Dr. Bush preached the Gospel in life but also in death: when he passed it was said of him that he is in the presence of the Lord he loved. Journalist opportunity seized: the result of a life lived in devotion to Christ is shown to the public.

Maybe I’m making more out of this observation than it merits, but nonetheless, it is an observation. Has Mormon journalism merely foregone religious jargon or absconded with their beliefs? Baptist journalists and spokesmen gladly publicized the Christian view on death and the afterlife, giving the reader a peek into Christian theology, a theology that doesn’t have anything to hide to save face. Contrasting orthodox Christianity and Mormonism on such basic tenets as death and the afterlife show them to be very dissimilar, and for a faith that considers itself Abrahamic as well as Christian, it has much to fear in open, public juxtaposition of the two which could have taken place had Mormon journalists openly shared their beliefs. It then makes sense why a non-religious obituary should be published.

So, you’ve seen cross references in the margin, or footnotes, of your Bible. But what would all those look like represented visually? Chris Harrison, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has done it. He’s taken the cross reference data and worked out the image below. Beautiful. Amazing. It’s the kind of the thing you can just stare at for ages. He’s also done similar work with Biblical names and places. Go check out the whole Visualizing the Bible page where you can find the entire above mentioned (he’s also got plenty of other interesting visualizations to check out).

Hopefully, this can (really) get us thinking about the interconnectedness of Scripture. Exempli gratia, notice the overarching connection that is Genesis and Revelation. I praise God for individuals using their talents (and technology) in service to the Church. Wow.

(HT: Addison Road)

• The first two messages in Mark Driscoll’s series “Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions”: birth control and humor/making jokes. The one on birth control should be required listening in pre-marital counseling. As for the making jokes topic, Driscoll verbally body slams every group possible while ending with guidelines on how to and when to make fun.
• Al Mohler takes the measure of Joel Osteen and finds him a man of short stature.
• Giles Peterson introduces the freshest jazz and experimental of 2oo8.
• Minimal progressive has never sounded so good with Deadmau5 on the decks.
• Richard Dawkins and John Lennox go head to head in the God Delusion debate.
• Sean McDowell talks about his dad, ministry, the emergent church, and apologetics on Stand to Reason.
• Lastly, Charles Hodgson gets his etymology on with “minx”, “tramp”, “tattoo”,  “pounce” and “mortar” in his weekly podictionary round-up.

It looks like it’s going to be a fun semester for chapel messages at Southeastern. I’m particularly excited (and you should be too) to hear John Lennox of the University to Oxford throw down. Just look at his jolly face…and you haven’t heard him speak yet. What a gracious, calculated (yes, pun intended–considering he’s a reader in mathematics) fellow. March 11-12 he’ll be here, Lord willing. Please, Lord. What you’ll want to do in the meantime is familiarize yourself with Dr. Lennox’s demulcent voice, and you can do that by clicking around at bethinking.org (his “God and Richard Dawkins” talk available there is a good intro to the man) and by smuggling yourself into Darwin’s Rottweiler’s den and listening to a debate between Lennox and Richard Dawkins.

Moreover, we have Mark Dever Tuesday, February 26 (cf. Capitol Hill Baptist Church [that this page has a Netscape fav icon is stultifying]). His current sermon series is entitled “Pierced for Our Transgressions.” You can most likely guess the inspiration for such a series and the content thereof considering his endorsement of the book by the same name. We can only hope that he brings a sermon in this vein.

Lastly, get ready for a Canadian kerfuffle on April 8 when Dr. Hogg brings history, humor and homily.

Anyone I missed that you’re looking forward to? Student preaching week? Here’s the full lineup.

Neat video concept of going around the world, dancing to two sweet house tunes:

In doing an intensified language course, like J-Term/Summer Hebrew or Greek, having a ready-to-go flashcard program for the computer is where it’s at. Talk about maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. I found the below Microsoft Excel flashcard file for Seow’s Biblical Hebrew vocabulary. I had no idea that Excel was capable of this, but boy is it sweet. I snagged it from Lionel Windsor. His language tools pages are a little treasure trove, and it looks like we get the booty! Thanks, Lionel.

Download Seow Biblical Hebrew Flashcards

[Edit: check the vocabulary list in the Excel file against the chapter's vocabulary list in the book which you are trying to learn first before studying that chapter. I think there are a few discrepancies.]