Frank Miller's 'Xerxes' Lithograph Announces '300' Prequel [Updated] - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

Well, we know what Frank Miller's followup to "300" will look like. It's a prequel that centers around the historical event known as the Battle of Marathon which lead directly to the events on which 3o0 was based. I liked the Movie and I've read the graphic novel. However I don't like the way Xerxes is portrayed or the Persian empire. Xerxes doesn't seem to be as bad as he was depicted. Don't forget he is also the same king who chose Ester in the Book of Ester. It was his empire that gave people freedom of religion and returned people back to the homes and territories they had been exiled from by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. They were hardly completely evil and bent on world conquest. Xerxes had political and personal reasons for invading Greece and burning Athens to the ground. The Bible says that everything was laid out to bring about Jesus' coming. In hindsight I can see what God meant. Because Xerxes invaded Greece, it forced the Greeks to work together and laying the groundwork for Alexander the Great to make them into one nation and standardize the Greek language and paving the way for the Romans. Because Alexander spread Greek culture and language all over, the Romans left it in place and it became the language of commerce. This is why Septuagint and the New Testament were done in Greek and they were the common scripture for Jews and Gentiles for centuries. Xerxes was no more a Hitler or a psychopath than any other leader.
Frank Miller's 'Xerxes' Lithograph Announces '300' Prequel [Updated] - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

Apologetics 315: Terminology Tuesday: Free Will

Brian Auten has posted a great definition for "Free Will".

Free Will: The ability of an agent to make genuine choices that stem from the self. Libertarians argue that free will includes the power to determine the will itself, so that a person with free will can will more than one thing. Compatibilists typically view free will as the power to act in accordance with one's own will rather than being constrained by some external cause, allowing that the will itself may ultimately be causally determined by something beyond the self. Hard determinists deny the existence of free will altogether. Most Christian theologians agree that humans possess free will in some sense but disagree about what kind of freedom is necessary. The possession of free will does not entail an ability not to sin, since human freedom is shaped and limited by human character. Thus a human person may be free to choose among possibilities in some situations but still be unable to avoid all sin

I'm not sure how Libertarian Free Will applies if it does not entail the ability not to sin. I agree it doesn't and I do not deny that humans possess personal will but I wouldn't call it Free Will as Brian defines it here. I think the definition covers what people mean when they use the term "Free Will", but I don't think we have it because without Christ we do not have the ability not to sin. Notice that I am not saying that people can't choose to do good things. I'm saying that without Christ we lack the ability to never sin in word or deed. Life become choosing which sins we indulge in and which ones we avoid with no hope of ever pleasing God. If we truly had Libertarian free will, we should be able to decide to not sin and Jesus' sacrifice would not have been needed to save His people.


Apologetics 315: Terminology Tuesday: Free Will

Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament: Glenn Beck and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Image via Wikipedia

Dr Mariottini has written a brilliant post exposing recent comments that Glenn Beck have made on National Television about the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'm amazed that this is even necessary because these are the most common mistakes made concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls  and I know that the real information is readily available. There is no excuse. I hope Beck apologizes in public but I'm not holding my breath. Take a look at this great post it summarizes the facts very well.  A brilliant resource!

Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament: Glenn Beck and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Why We Need Minority Heroes in Superhero Comics - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

I Read this great article on Comics Alliance and it summarizes my viewpoint almost perfectly. I've got to share some quotes from it.

Here's the thing: I love this stuff, and I want to share it with everybody. I realize tastes aren't universal, but when really good stories are held back from finding a mass, multicultural audience by the whitebread nature of the protagonists, it's depressing. You can't just change race of major icons, sure, but the world around them should still reflect the world we live in, because otherwise it's alienating. I don't want to read, and enjoy, comics that alienate other people for unnecessary reasons -- it's depressing, and it kills my enjoyment, too.

I don't want to read comics about superheroes -- or about the future -- or even about an imaginary, heroic alternate fantasy world where that's the case, particularly since it goes against everything I find so appealing about the genre. It's not that I need my heroes to be perfect. I just want the world they live in, and the people they are, to represent the reality outside my window, and the reality I've experienced throughout my life.

Why We Need Minority Heroes in Superhero Comics - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews