Month: January 2011

Prof Horner’s Bible Reading System on your Olive Tree iPhone App

/ sammarsh6 / 14 Comments

If you’ve discovered Prof. Grant Horner’s Bible reading system to be a blessing, like me, then you might be interested in this tutorial for adding his Bible reading plan onto your iOS device (iPhone or iPad) *without the need to jailbreak*:

  1. Download the Bible reading plans here. Thanks to a guy called Robert who’s put all the hard work into creating these, you have coded 7 years worth of daily readings which rotate per Prof. Horner’s system. You can use the reading plan as one large file on the iPhone. However, it is a bit unwieldy like that so it’s broken it up into 7 separate yearly plans. [UPDATE August 2014: the above link is now broken but you can get a full year’s worth here]
  2. Now you just need to get these files onto your iOS device. Until Olive Tree add an official way to add them you will need to download another application. Go to http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/ and download the free app, iPhone Explorer. This app allows you to look in certain areas of your iOS device’s file system and view, copy and paste the content. If you don’t have a jailbroken device then the extent of this is limited, you couldn’t add your own SMS ringtones, but you can add reading plans to BibleReader!
  3. Install and launch iPhone Explorer on your computer and plug in your iOS device. You will be able to see your device in the app, click on it, select the App folder and then find BibleReader. This may take a little time if you have a lot of apps on your device as the list won’t appear to be in any order (it is, but is based off the random folder names iOS uses for your apps, luckily iPhone Explorer doesn’t show you their real names as you’d be completely lost!).
  4. Within the BibleReader folder there are four folders, one which is named Documents, and two files. To add your reading plans (the 7 files not the folder), then drag these files into the Documents folder in iPhone Explorer. Now unplug your iOS device, and close BibleReader. If you don’t have iOS4 then all you need to do is leave BibleReader (if it was even open in the first place). If you do it is a little more fiddly. Leave BibleReader if you had it open, then double-tap the Home button, find BibleReader in the opened dock, hold down on it till it enters wiggle mode and then tap the close button.
  5. Now open up BibleReader again and you’ll find your reading plan!

Cranmer: The ‘rebel’ Anglican bishops ‘defect’ to Rome

/ sammarsh6 / Leave a comment

via Cranmer: The ‘rebel’ Anglican bishops ‘defect’ to Rome.
So, the Ordinariate officially got underway with the three defecting bishops being ordained priests in the Roman Catholic church:

It is strange, if not a little ironic, that they have exchanged a church with gender issues for a church with gender issues; a church in which being a woman is a bar to higher office for one in which the possession of a wife is a bar to higher office.

As one commenter posts: Men in frocks are upset that women in frocks want to join their ranks.

By devoting so much time and effort to gender issues, instead of challenging society by deconstructing the question or focusing on poverty and wealth (for example), the Church is simply showing itself to share the same obsessions as the world. Pauline ethics seem almost utopian to our myopic age, in which it appears at times that one’s identity is made to reside in testes and ovaries. The issue for the Church of England is that this debate has been blown out of all proportion; it is neither a battle for the soul of the church, nor an issue worthy of schism. It is a question utterly peculiar to this era, and those Christians on both sides of the divide might consider toning down the rhetoric and the apologetics, and preaching the gospel instead.

Amen.

Olive Tree

/ sammarsh6 / Leave a comment

A good overview of Olive Tree’s Bible Software v5. The app keeps getting better and better.

My only complaint is that the resources are heavily weighted towards a reformed theological standpoint – lot’s of Grudem, Sproul et al. Not a bad thing in itself but could begin to limit its breadth as a tool. Well done Olive Tree!

On Loving an Arminian

/ sammarsh6 / 3 Comments

What happens when a “die-hard Calvinist of approximately sixteen years” falls for a girl who is a member of the Society of Evangelical Arminians?

Despite our differences, we both can see Christ at work in the other. Both of us want to worship God and to honor Him as He truly is. Both of us seek fidelity to the Bible. Honestly, that attitude is part of why, despite our differences, I enjoy her company. I truly can understand why she gets upset when a Calvinist apologist says things such as, “Arminians are trying to ignore Scripture on this point” or “Arminians are seeking to make man look better.” While this is thelogical implication of many Arminian interpretations, that is not the reason why Arminians say what they do. They genuinely do believe that Arminian interpretations of Scripture are better than Calvinistic interpretations of Scripture, and therefore that Calvinism dishonors God.

Whilst theological wars rave, what I like here is the recognition that the love of God stretches beyond our theological categories.

… it surely would do the church nothing but good if there were more Calvinists who would fall in love with Arminians, and vice versa.

Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. 

Read: On Loving an Arminian.