Vegas Blog - Day 4

Miles: 1286.4
Gallons Burned: 29.7
Elvis Sightings: 8
Total Miles: 15922.6
Total Gallons Burned: 530.4
Total Caffeinated Drinks: 90
Total Gigabytes of Pictures: 33.75

Sunday. We woke up late and debated what to do for about an hour. We eventually when to a nearby Krispy Kreme. After eating donuts and talking about the regulative principle. Oh man! Not again! Alright let's have another digression:

So "what is the regulative principle?" you ask. Well you'll be sorry you asked, that's for sure! Some Reformed Christians believe that in the Bible the New Covenant Church grants many freedoms including the limited contextualization of the gospel (see Acts 17:16-34). But some really reformed folks (including Derek, Rolando, and Par - please correct me if I am misrepresenting you) believe that when it comes to worship, only the existing songs in the Bible are legit to sing. Also only instrument that existed during the time period of the Bible are acceptable. In my opinion this is akin to some White guy going to my ancestral land of India and telling some rural village of Gujarati folks, "Ok now that you love Jesus you need to get an electric Guitar, some tattoos, where are your cigarettes...you're not wearing black. What kind of Christians are you??" (The cigarettes, obsession with black, tattoos, and instruments are all cultural norms at my church of Mars Hill in Seattle) To mandate the way that people respond to God is lame. The precise reason that the Spirit-led gospel has had such a huge impact is that it is soo adaptable. I think imposing a 2000 year-old cultural standard is foolish and not respectful of the amazing diversity of God's image-bearers.

Sorry, you probably didn't want to know any of that. Anyway, after the donuts and dialogue we walked up to see more fancy Casino Hotels. New York, New York is a ridiculous C&H. It features the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, and a roller coaster that travels from the outside into the Casino. Excalibur is styled after a fairytale castle complete with turrets and a drawbridge. Luxor is a C&H that is truly one of a kind. It is a huge obsidian pyramid and attached sphinx. Inside there is a triangular prism room. To access the hotel rooms you use four Inclinators. These fancy elevators travel at a 39 degree angle up the corners of the pyramid. The MGM Grand is indeed grand. This C&H is based on the Wizard of Oz. You enter on the yellow brick road and are greeted by a lion in his glass-cased environment. It boasts the most rooms of any hotel in the world: 6,852!!
Following our wind-swept 95 degree heat walk we jumped on a bus to venture down to Fremont Street again...