Friday, September 24, 2010

This Week in Calvinism - September 24, 2010

  • Mr. T on the subject of total depravity.

  • Is repentance really all that important?

  • Pastor Bob Turner responds to a Methodist pastor's critique of Calvinism.

  • "Gratiaetnatura" asks, "Would a good God predestine some people to Heaven and the rest to Hell no matter what choices people made?" He then answers his own question in the negative, and concludes, "The God of TULIP Calvinism is an evil God, period." Well, I guess that settles it.

  • Mike Anderson of "Let Us Repent and Believe" has launched a new blog: Calvinistic Quotes. Check it out.

  • Coming soon: Open Mic Night at Calvinistic Cartoons.

Friday, September 17, 2010

This Week in Calvinism - September 17, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sometimes a Book Review Says More About the Reviewer Than the Book

I love perusing reader reviews on Amazon.com. I almost always click on the one-star reviews first because those tend to be the most interesting.

Like this review for Robert Whitlow's The List:
    I read this book, not knowing that Robert Whitlow was a christian author. I read the back and it seemed interesting (how I choose most of my books). I was overwhelmed, and not in a good way. The born-again christianity hidden within what would have been a decent story, turned me off. It made me doubt my very existence, and I think that should have been mentioned somewhere on the dust jacket. Don't misunderstand me, I was raised Catholic, and am not anti-religion, or anti-christian in any way, but the feelings that the characters described as hearing God were unrealistic, and for those of us who apparently lack this "calling" it made me feel like I was worthless, and frankly had a very negative reaction to the book with a severe emotional breakdown. Please don't try to "save" me. I just wanted to give a warning to anyone considering purchasing this book.
I had never heard of The List before, but now I kind of want to read it.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Not All Book-Burnings Make the News

Funny. I don't recall ever seeing this story back in 2008:
    Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land.

    Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.

    After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it.

    "The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue," he said.

    The newspaper Maariv reported Tuesday that hundreds of yeshiva students took part in the book-burning. But Aharon told The Associated Press that only a few students were present, and that he was not there when the books were torched.

    "Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were," he said.

    He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a commandment to burn materials that urge Jews to convert.

    "I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

(via)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Different Branches of Calvinism

What kind of Calvinist are you? Amyraldian, Infralapsarian, or Supralapsarian? Pastor Jason Robertson provides the following chart as a reference:

Amyraldism
"Low" Calvinism
Infralapsarianism
"Moderate" Calvinism
Supralapsarianism
"High" Calvinism
Decree to Create ManDecree to Create ManDecree Election and Reprobation
Decree to Allow FallDecree to Allow FallDecree to Allow Fall
Decree Atonement for all menDecree Election and ReprobationDecree Atonement for Elect
Decree Election and ReprobationDecree Atonement for ElectDecree to Create Man

(By the way, I fall into the Infralapsarian camp.)

Read more about the different theories here.

Friday, September 10, 2010

This Week in Calvinism - September 10, 2010

  • Be sure to check out the new book authored by Jeff Peterson, Eddie Eddings, and Jon Cardwell, entitled Against Calvinism: Logical Arguments to Disprove the Doctrines of Grace.

  • Nicholas explains why Calvinists should use the SQ3R study method.

  • Does Revelation 3:20-22 really present a dilemma for Calvinists? No. Back up and read verse 19. I don't see how a reproof of believers within the church is a refutation of eternal security. Those who do refuse to repent demonstrate they were never truly saved in the first place (1 John 2:19).

  • Pastor Justin Holcomb introduces us to the awesome women of the Reformation.

Friday, September 03, 2010

This Week in Calvinism - September 3, 2010

  • How infant salvation fits into the Calvinist view.

  • "Open Theism is quite indebted to Calvinism"? Wait...what?

  • Lutheran pastor Paul T. McCain, upset that American Presbyterians are trying to sneak Calvinism into Germany, wants to be clear about something: "Calvinism is not a faithful proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is not an authentic, genuine and true presentation of the Reformation, but an unfortunate deformation of it."

  • Steve Hays responds.

  • Documents of the Reformation are on display in Edinburgh, Scotland. Among them, John Knox's Scottish Confession of Faith and his First Blast of the Trumpet.

  • Danelle believes the recent "surge" in Calvinism is part of Satan's campaign of deception in the final days. She presents no evidence, of course, but there you have it.
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