Since I have a daughter who will be three soon, I often play tag with her. Now I get to play tag on my blog.

Casey from Casey’s Critical Thinking has tagged me. This means that I am supposed to reveal seven things about me that my readers do not know and then tag three other bloggers so that they can do the same.

1. I used to work at Disneyland. If you visited the magic shop in the mid nineties, you probably saw me. Consequently, no one typically wants to play cards with me.
2. I will probably be raking leaves today. We were blessed with a Colorado home with mature landscaping. My wife loves to see the leaves change in the fall. I really don’t love to rake them.
3. We have no pets, but are thinking about getting a miniature Australian shepherd. Or, if you are or know of someone in CO who has a puppy looking for a home please let me know through the Contact me page.
4. I started playing hockey when I was five years old, but I think that’s what all five-year-old boys do who grow up in Michigan. I played roller hockey for a bit during high school in CA, but I don’t really play anything anymore.
5. My sister and I won a local doubles tennis tournament when we were around high-school age. We even beat the head coach and her daughter…substantially. I don’t play tennis anymore either.
6. I like to watch every flavor of CSI, along with House, The Office, The Soup, The Showbiz Show, and the 1/2 Hour News Hour. When my wife has the remote, we watch a plethora of reality TV shows. Hmmm…maybe I watch too much TV.
7. My goal is to eventually be involved in full-time ministry.

Those are mine. I tag:

• Wade at Christian Affiliate Marketers.
• C at C’s Weblog.
• Ron at Whatsoever You Do To The Least of My Brothers.

After Diocletian’s persecution of Christians, many of the later Roman emperors, including Constantine, saw Christianity as an ally instead of an enemy. In 313, when the only other emperor was Licinius, Constantine arranged an agreement between the two of them so that Christianity was no longer an illegal religion. This was known as the Edict of Milan. Later, in 323 when Constantine defeated Licinius to become the sole emperor, he made Christianity the preferred religion (which means he still allowed other religions, including emperor worship).

Constantine was not a theologically strong Christian, even waiting to be baptized on his deathbed with the belief that more sins would be covered, but he still had a large impact on the Christian movement. In the short term, the initial permissiveness toward the movement under cooperation with Licinius and the later preference allowed Christians to more openly profess their faith without fears of persecution. Chrisitianity was formerly in the public square in the form of executions, but now it was in the public square in the form of legal discourse.

In the long term, the effects were not so good. Constantine not only allowed Christianity, but he also wanted to govern it and proclaimed himself the bishop of bishops. This led to many decisions regarding the direction Christianity was to legally move in being made by someone who did not know much about Christianity. As an example, in the debate between Arius and Athanasius, Constantine changed his mind multiple times, always siding for the person he felt would bring the most peace among the people. He did not care about orthodox theology as much as he cared about politics and securing his own power. The good part of this incident, though, were the decisions that came out of the Council of Nicea which Constantine organized, regarding the divinity of Christ.

Although there was a bishop in Rome, where Constantine first lived, the idea that someone in Rome was to control the church was born with Constantine’s rule as head bishop. The bishop of Rome, though, was the bishop that was the most geographically close to Constantine so his opinion became elevated amongst the bishops due to this influence upon the emperor. The bishop’s influence became so elevated that when Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, the Roman bishop was in the position to assume control over all of the other bishops. As the lectures indicate, there were many other factors that led to this and the eventual creation of the papacy, but this one cannot be forgotten.

It’s time for another post about me.

Seriously, though, there are many regular readers of this blog and I think that it is entirely appropriate for them to get to know me a bit, especially since I have yet to post my testimony. I am taking an Evangelism course next and I think that writing a testimony is an assignment so I’ll have one to post soon.

My Myers Briggs personality type is Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging (INTJ). If you have never taken a Myers Briggs test, many can be found online.

So, what does this personality type say about me?

One website says this:

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of “definiteness”, of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise — and INTJs can have several — they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don’t know.

Another one says this:

The INTJ’s interest in dealing with the world is to make decisions, express judgments, and put everything that they encounter into an understandable and rational system. Consequently, they are quick to express judgments. Often they have very evolved intuitions, and are convinced that they are right about things.

The same site says I’d be a good professor, manager, or computer specialist. I guess that’s why I administer and teach in a computer degree program.

Yet another site says this:

INTJs are among the most independent of the sixteen types. Their theme song may be “My Way.” As with other NTs, this independence often gives them an aura of arrogance that makes in-depth relationships develop slowly. At both work and play they can often seem aloof and sometimes argumentative. For INTJs, such behavior is simply the result of their attempt to stimulate the world around them. They can be stunned, even appearing hurt, when others accuse them of being distant and seemingly uncaring, but it is, ironically, the INTJ’s caring that has been the source of the provocation. They may even seem surprised at others taking offense when their motivation was fostering improvement. Again, as with other NTs, INTJs learn by arguing, part of their continuing quest to understand the universe. The problem is that an INTJ’s “friendly discussion” may be seen by others as hostile, even obnoxious behavior.

Hmmm. I guess this explains a lot of things…

My regular readers have probably noticed that my posts come in themes (you might want to call them “topics”). The most recent theme has been John Calvin.

Here’s a secret: most of my themes pertain to whatever I am studying at the moment. I have been writing a paper about Calvin for a Church History course.

As I was reading through Calvin’s reply to Sadoleto, a Catholic bishop who had written a letter to the city of Geneva asking them to return to Catholicism, I discovered one of the most forceful presentations of the Gospel message that I have ever read:

First, we bid a man begin by examining himself, and this not in a superficial and perfunctory manner, but to cite his conscience before the tribunal of God, and when sufficiently convinced of his iniquity, to reflect on the strictness of the sentence pronounced upon all sinners. Thus confounded and amazed at his misery, he is prostrated and humbled before God; and, casting away all self-confidence, groans as if given up to final perdition. Then we show that the only haven of safety is the mercy of God, as manifested in Christ, in whom every part of our salvation is complete. As all mankind are, in the sign of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by His obedience, He has wiped off all our transgressions; by His sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by His blood, washed away our sins; by His cross, borne our curse; and by His death, made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy. When we embrace Christ by faith, and come, as it were, into communion with Him, this we term, after the manner of Scripture, the righteousness of faith.

The entire letter, along with Sadoleto’s original, can be found in the book A Reformation Debateedited by John C. Olin.

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