The Passion of The Christ

Here’s an article about what to expect from the up-coming Mel Gibson film The Passion Of The Christ. It was written by Deacon Keith A Fournier, a constitutional lawyer and a graduate of the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University, Franciscan University and the University of Pittsburgh. He was present during the movie preview on the White House.

He described the gathering, “This ‘invitation only’ gathering of ‘movers and shakers’ in Washington, D.C. were shaking indeed, but this time from sobbing.” I linked that part when a question about the movie being anti-Semitic was raised from the audience, a man stood up and said, “After watching this film, I do not understand how anyone can insinuate that it even remotely presents that the Jews killed Jesus. It doesn’t.” He continued “It made me realize that my sins killed Jesus”.

This was email to me by a friend today. I encourage you to forward this to your friends too.

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Same Path

Today, I received a call from an old friend of mine back in college. I am overwhelmed to know that he too has undergone the same spiritual journey that I had. He has known my journey thru this site and from that of my other site, Sabbath In Christ. It’s always wonderful to know that other people walked the same path as yours, received the same grace that you received and accepted the same Christ as you have.

Britney Spears: How NOT to do it again

This one’s from Plain Truth Ministry’s weekly newsletter.

“Last week Britney Spears placed an exclamation point on the sad state of matrimony in our country by marrying a childhood friend in Las Vegas and then annulling that marriage 55 hours later. But before we take up stones to cast at Britney, perhaps we who claim the name of Christ should take a look at ourselves. Barna Research Online reports that Christians are just as likely to get divorced as non-Christians. We don’t seem to be much better at loving one another than non-Christians.”

“The truth is that Jesus is the only one who can faithfully live out our vows to our spouses. Whether we become legalistic or licentious the outcome in our marriages is the same. Our spouses lose because we are imperfect humans. The answer to faithfully loving a spouse for a lifetime is to trust Jesus to do it through us (also called walking in the Spirit, the antithesis of living under legalistic religion, see Galatians). That is why he placed his Spirit into us — so that we can produce the kind of spiritual fruit that will bring a marriage to life! “

Automating Philippine Elections Not Possible?

OK, our company run a non-partisan election website so I’m not supposed to give comments regarding what’s happening right now this election season. But since my comments will not involve partisan politics and in fact involves the industry we’re we belong — Information Technology, I think it’s just alright to voice out my concerns.

A group of people calling themselves Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines has been beating the COMELEC since late last year and claiming that they are not prepared and capable of handling the automated elections in May. The latest noise came in yesterday. They said the machines are not good, it can be hacked or cannot handle the papers for proper reading of votes, among other complains.

Senator Sotto also complained, The masses will be seriously disadvantaged”, pertaining to what is perceived to be a harder way of shading the ballots than manually writing the candidates names. He, among other politicians, also claim that it is much easier to cheat using an automated system. If it’s “ballot switching” before, it’s going to be “diskette switching” now.

I’m not an expert nor a politician. I may not be the authority on this. But let me share the reasons why I feel uncomfortable with all these attacks on the COMELEC and objections to using the automated system of voting this coming elections.

First of, I doubt it if its really easier to cheat under the automated system than the traditional system. In the first place, the politicians have perfected the craft of cheating using the old manual system. They’ve been doing it for years, so technically, they know the ins and outs. But this time, the process is new. It’s going to be harder for them to come up with new techniques.

Secondly, I echo Commissioner Abalos’ question, “What’s easier, to shade or to write the names?”

Last but certainly not the least, I smell something fishy with all these objections from the said organization. Do the complainants have no vested interests? During a press briefing in August 2003 hosted by ITFP announcing the filing of a case against COMELEC, top officials of the losing bidder of the P1.3B contract of automated counting machines, Total Information Management (TIM), were present. Are the lawsuit and smear campaign against the country’s election managers funded by vested interests?

My layman’s mind is confident with the claims of COMELEC that they are prepared to handle the first automated elections in the Philippines. Why don’t we just support them. Our country is in a mess right now. We need to unite to be able to achive a certain, immediate goal — a clean and accurate elections in May 2004.

I am the 666 (?)

A friend of mine emailed me a site today showing a possible computation of 666. According to the writer, its the Papacy.

I’m not a mathematician nor an escathologist. But here’s my layman’s analysis. All you need to do to be able to come up with an impressive calculation of 666 is an object and a creative imagination. If your object is the Pope (“The Pope is 666!”), just be creative and you can come up with a computation. In fact, the traditional Vicarius Filii Dei is more impressive than this one! Even Ellen White can be 666 if you’re creative enough to jungle around her name. Even myself can be 666. My name is “Arnold” — that’s 6, “Gamboa” — that’s another 6, and I got my highest educational honor when I was grade 6 — so that makes me 666! No sarcasm there, just driving a point.

I’m saddened because it seems that those people who concentrate on determining who 666 missed the point — completely. Here in the Philippines, when the news that the govenment will implement an ID system, I heard my Adventist friends saying, “It’s a sign!”, which pertains to that preaching on eschatological events where we were told that at the end, there will be a chip or something that will identify everyone “before persecution comes”. The fact is, it’s just a simple SSS-like ID system. When I was a kid, I remember a local church layman showing to us a calendar where the first day was Monday and the last day was Sunday. He said that’s a “sign” of the coming Sunday law. That was 20 years ago, and I don’t see anymore a calendar that prints the same format. They all missed the point!

I believe in what Rick Warren said. If you want Jesus to come soon, forget prophecy and concentrate on your mission — evangelism. In the first place, who would care who the 666 is if your eyes is focused on the 777 — Jesus, the completeness of everything. I am sure that if my eyes is focused on Jesus, I will never be fooled by whoever the 666 is or will be when the time comes. On the other hand, there are millions and millions of people out there who long for meaning in life and will eventually be lost if not reached. They need Jesus, what are we doing?