A New Name!

Seven years ago when I started this blog, I sought input from friends on the name. Among some of the ideas I put forward were "Noggin Toaster," "Hopeful Heretic," and "Yearning for Home." At the end of the day, "Hopeful Heretic" proved to be the most popular--though not without a significant dissenter. A friend cautioned against labeling myself a heretic, referencing G. K. Chesterton's thoughts on the word. I considered the objection, but decided to go forward with the name. It proved fairly catchy and for a long time I was happy with it.

Fast forward to today. My faith has evolved since then. I've been rediscovering orthodoxy, learning the Christian roots of my faith. I've opened the Book of Common Prayer, tasted the Lord's Supper, walked the seasons of Lent and Advent. I've been introduced to Christian scholarship both ancient and modern and traced the fascinating history of our religion. I still have so much to learn, but this I know: I no longer wish to label myself a heretic. I am a Christian through and through.

Read The Gospels (Letters To My Family)

What kind of legacy do I want to leave my family? What character and vision and story do I want to instill in them? That is the inspiration behind this series of letters--an attempt to set down and share in words the values I hope to lead them in by example.

When I consider the question of what advice I would leave with my family, the first thing that comes to mind is: Read the Gospels. Read the whole Bible, too. But, especially the Gospels. Read about the life and teachings of our Messiah, who is our life. Immerse yourself in the story of the Gospel. Soak up His wisdom and see in Christ the face of God. Walk in His footsteps as He leads you as a good Shepherd. Come to know Him who gave His life for you.

Book Review: Finding The Right Hills To Die On (Gavin Ortlund)

Finding The Right Hills To Die On
(by Gavin Ortlund)

"Is that a salvational issue?", "Can't we all just get along?" These are questions I'm all to familiar with and used to use myself in the cause of unity. Because, on the other hand, I had seen people dividing over the silliest things. But over the last few years I've finding this framework somewhat inadequate. That's where Gavin Ortlund's "Finding the Right Hills to Die on" comes in.

The Ethics of Parenting (Nine Paradigms)

Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash

Our Sabbath fellowship has been studying ethics using Steve Wilkens' Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics. The book goes through nine different theories on what makes something right or wrong and how we can know the difference. Anyway, I put together the following descriptions to make some of this theory more relatable. I give you the ethical theories of parenting. Enjoy!


Cultural Relativism
Look to your neighbors and fellow Mommy bloggers for advice. Follow the culturally accepted standards

Ethical egoism
You're raising up your future caregivers. Also consider points for present enjoyment and cuteness, help with chores, and how they contribute to your status / reputation.

Ezekiel's Temple Part 2: Telescopic Prophecy

The Ezekiel Temple poses a challenge to all interpreters. In the last post, I examined the supposedly simple pre-millennial view and pointed out some complications. Here I'd like to propose a potential solution for post-millennial and amillennial interpreters.


The problem for the post-millenialist and amillennialist (and the pre-millennialist who accepts the above arguments) is that the language of the Ezekiel Temple appears very specific in nature and is therefore difficult to conceive of as anything but literal. This makes an allegorical interpretation seem unlikely.

A few other solutions have been proposed. One is to interpret the passage as referring to the second Temple. However, if that is the case, one would have to account for the differences. Herod's Temple didn't measure up to the dimensions of the Ezekiel Temple.

Another proposed solution would be to see this as a potential Temple that could have been built had Israel repented. Again, history seems to work counter to this interpretation. A remnant of Israel did repent, did return to the land, and did rebuild a Temple. Why wasn't it the Ezekiel Temple?

Ezekiel's Temple Part 1: A Few Problems

The temple described in Ezekiel 40-48 was always my go to for defending both a belief in the rebuilding of the Temple and a pre-millennial view (that is, a literal thousand year reign after the second coming of Messiah). Over the last several years my views have shifted, and the Ezekiel Temple has become more of a problem to solve. Before, the thousand year reign seemed a convenient place to put all those passages that didn't seem to fit either in this world or the world to come. When I began to adopt a post-millennial position (the idea that the thousand year reign is more of a spiritual reality for a non-specific long period of time that began with Messiah's first coming) because of other Scriptural evidence, I was left with a number of passages that no longer had homes in time.

I want to propose a possible solution to the Ezekiel Temple problem for the post-millennial view, but first I want to look at whether the pre-millennial view provides an adequate framework for understanding this difficult passage. Placing the Temple in the time period of the thousand year reign seems like a simple enough solution, but I would suggest there are two problems the complicate the matter.

2019 Reading and Writing Goals

With the new year in place, I thought I'd throw my hat into the yearly reading and writing challenges. It's been a good reading year (about 16 books in 2018...my Goodreads stats are a bit off) and I'd like to keep that up. After a year long hiatus from blogging, I'd also like to pick that back up again. Side note: The FBTL website goes away in January (all the wonderful contributions are backed up). That project was a fun experiment, but something I just don't think I was ready to commit to long term. We'll keep things low key and on a more personal level for a while.