I was astonished at what I just read at Singing in the Reign about Napoleon’s Proof for the Divinity of Jesus. I’m not too sure about the proof. But what astonished me was to find that this man who is regarded as the epitome of the proud and ungodly emperor, the man who crowned himself as emperor to avoid submitting to the pope, actually wrote, admittedly in his years in exile in St Helena, thoughts like this:

Christ … kindles the flame of love which causes one’s self-love to die, and triumphs over every other love. Why should we not recognize in this miracle of love the eternal Word which created the world? The other founders of religions had not the least conception of this mystic love which forms the essence of Christianity.

I have filled multitudes with such passionate devotion that they went to death for me. But God forbid that I should compare the enthusiasm of my soldiers with Christian love.

An interesting story from the BBC: A 93-year-old retired Pentecostal pastor has just had his first accident in 76 years of driving. He ended up hanging upside down in his overturned car, and said

It was a miracle I got out alive and I put it down to the power of prayer and God looking after me.

But God was apparently not looking after the two Porsche cars, symbols of greed some might think, which he managed to badly damage in the process, causing £60,000 ($120,000) damage. So perhaps it is for the best that he says

that’s it – the end of my driving career, I’m never driving again.

According to this blog post, Lifeway is looking for two seminary students as temporary workers, for a meeting in June, and the job qualifications include:

You must be SBC and cannot have been anywhere near anything sinful in the last 6 months.

Is this an April Fool? I don’t think so. But surely this last condition rules out anyone living on earth. I don’t think they believe in sinless perfection in the Southern Baptist Convention. Anyway, even if these individuals are sinless, unless they are living in a monastery with other sinless people they have at least been near to sinful people. Or would anyone want to claim that every thing and person in an SBC seminary is perfectly sinless?

I suppose they would accept as sinless Jesus newly returned from heaven, but there is only one of him. And then would he count as SBC? There would surely be issues about whether his baptism by John was valid: John may have been called a Baptist, but there is no record of him having himself been baptised as a believer.

If anyone other than Jesus does apply for this job and claim to qualify, they should surely be asked to read this and withdraw their application:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8 (TNIV)