Beyond the Gate

Vox Apologia

The Vox Apologia apologetics carnival is up at firstpete315 . The theme is, "What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel?" I'm afraid I didn't get a post together for this one, but I'll be sure to go read those who did.

Vox Apolgia will be hosted here next week. The topic is The Three Governments: Family, Church and State. Hopefully this is broad enough that writers will have lots of different ways they can go with it. If you'd like to participate, use my email link to submit your post before midnight Sunday, EST. (EST is GMT minus 5 hours.) Send me your site name, your site's main URL, your post title, the post URL, and a short description of your post. If you want a TrackBack ping, please send that link, too. Use the email link, upper left on this page.

Abortion Debate

JivinJehoshaphat has a great analysis and response to another blogger's pro-abortion arguments. It is very well done. I'd love to see the topic debated in the Wittenberg Gate Debate forum (hint hint). Any takers?

Linking to This Site

If you link to this site from yours, would you do me a favor and make sure you link to http://dory.typepad.com/wittenberg_gate rather than my domain name address (www.wittenberggate.net)? It seems the domain name links are no longer picked up on the TTLB Ecosystem and I have lost many links because of it. Sorry to bother you.

Also, if you link to me in a bloglist other than an aggregator blogroll, I would like to return the favor and list you in my reciprocal list (lower left sidebar), so my readers can find you. If I don't have you on my list, send me an email or comment to call attention to the link.

Defending Division?

JollyBlogger has posted a great answer to a challenge posted at PsuedoPolymath to defend division in the church. I was going to weigh in on this, but the Jolly Beggar said so much of what I would have said--and said it better--that I am not going to bother. The only point I would add is this: Distinctives are not necessarily divisions. The weakness of fallen man does not allow us perfect knowledge and interpretation of the Scriptures. Distinctives among the various denominations and congregations allow Christians to exercise not only preferences, but also their liberty of conscience when determining how they are most obediently to worship God. If, for example, someone was convinced that women should not be church officers, would it be right for him to submit himself to female elders just for the sake of unity?

Powerful Defender: A John Bunyan Story

Violet, over at Promptings is writing a four-part story about John Bunyan. The first part is up now. I'm eager for the rest of it!

Scientology

Catez at Allthings2all has a great post on the history and beliefs of Scientology. I've heard bits of this before, but I've never seen this good of a summary all in one place. This is a religion that is having quite a bit of influence in Hollywood these days. I will resist the urge to comment further, other than to say that such resistance requires some effort on my part.

Catez is the same fine lady that recently started the Women4God Blogs aggregator, in which this site is included.

Comments

[Glenn]

Dory-
I've moved my site, but I'm still linking to you... can you replace the link to Procrastinators of the world- Unite! (Later) with Unite Later? Thanks!

[Jivin J]

Dory,
Thanks for the links and the compliments. If there are any takers on the debate - I'd even be willing for the sake of argument to take the pro-choice side and represent it to the best of my abilities.

[Jeff Smith]

Dory,
Proverbs Daily a proud linker to your site.

[Sarah of WA]

I am taking a church history class right now. We just got to the Age of Reformation. Frankly, our age of denominations -- of divisions -- NOW is so much better than what we had before -- where to believe opposite of the Roman Catholic Church was to be tortured and killed (And excommunicated -- separated from the presence of God in the eyes of the church)

I don't think unity is worth that. What's more -- when you give that much power to one body, they tend to be corrupted by it. So you end up without the truth being actively preached at all.