Pastor Sent to Prison for Advocating Spanking

I will admit up front that I know nothing about Aleitheia Bible Church or Pastor Philip Caminiti. I had never even heard of them before reading that Caminiti was sentenced to two years in prison for teaching that spanking is biblical.

Yes, this happened in America. Madison, Wisconsin, to be exact.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi wanted to send a message that "child abuse" would not be tolerated. "What is important to me," she said, "is there was and continues to this day no expression of remorse or repentance for the consequences of those actions, or what the whole chain of events has led the family and the community through."

Again, I will confess to being ignorant of all the facts in the case. Is it possible that there were instances in which parental discipline may have gone too far? Yes, I suppose it is. But keep in mind that the imprisoned pastor was never charged with abusing a child. His "crime" was instructing parents in his congregation to spank their children.

As far as I can tell, no crime was ever committed. Wisconsin law states: "Reasonable discipline may involve only such force as a reasonable person believes is necessary. It is never reasonable discipline to use force which is intended to cause great bodily harm or death or creates an unreasonable risk of great bodily harm or death." I guess it all depends on what a particular court deems "reasonable."

I was reminded of something my own pastor, John Piper, once said about spanking: "I just think spanking is really healthy for children. It is a measured deliverance of a non-damaging act of mild pain that makes the child feel the seriousness of what he's done. It is not beating. It is not abuse. There is a clear difference. The very word "spank" exists because there is such a thing as a loving way to whop a child on his behind or his chunky thigh."

Spanking is "really healthy for children"? There are many people out there who would have a difficult time trying to wrap their minds around that concept. "He's saying parents should hit their children! How barbaric!" Nonsense.

We are designed in such a way that pain actually serves to protect our bodies. The pain a child feels when touching a hot stove keeps his hand from becoming badly burned. Likewise, a quick swat on the bottom can help a disobedient child avoid even worse consequences associated with sinful behavior.

This is a very important issue, and what has happened in Wisconsin should concern Christians everywhere. What many fathers and mothers consider to be a normal, biblical part of parenting could be reason enough for the state to tear them away from their children and throw them into prison.

But, then again, this is a nation that has little use for scriptural truth. What else would we expect?

This Week in Calvinism - May 25, 2012

• Did you know that 1 Timothy 4:10 actually destroys Calvinism? I didn't either.
  
  
• Mark A. Rathel is writing a series of 12 articles this year on the Calvinism-Arminianism debate. The fifth, covering the Calvinist doctrine of particular atonement, is now online.
  
  
• Thomas Booher, blogging at The Tulip Driven Life, shares the eight messages/books that have most impacted his theology.
  
  
• By understanding the ground rules of biblical interpretation, you too can avoid being "converted to the errors of Calvinism."
  
  
• Arminians with itchy trigger fingers had better watch out. Doc Spurgeon is marshal in these here parts.
  
  
• Download for free John Clover Monsma's 1919 book What Calvinism has done for America.

This Week in Calvinism - May 18, 2012

• Biblical Calvinism should evoke a passion for lost souls.
  
  
• The theme for Desiring God's 2012 National Conference is Act the Miracle: God's Work and Ours in the Mystery of Sanctification.
  
  
• How to backslide in nine easy steps.
  
  
• The book of 1 Corinthians in 40 tweets.
  
  
• Read more.

How to Lovingly Rebuke False Teachers

UPDATE: Pastor Scott Rodriguez gives the full story behind the video.

This Week in Calvinsim - May 11, 2012

• The enemy of Southern Baptists is neither Calvinism nor Arminianism, but polarization. Come on, guys. Can't we all just get along?
  
  
• Bobby Grow thinks Calvinism is here to stay in America.
  
  
• Tim Challies with six bullet points on preaching.
  
  
• Introducing the updated Desiring God app for your mobile device.

This Week in Calvinism - May 4, 2012

• Calvinist pastor Chris Roberts has introduced a resolution for consideration at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting seeking unity in spite of theological differences.
  
  
• Greg Forster, author of The Joy of Calvinism, has written a series of articles on evangelicals in politics for Public Discourse. (part 1, part 2, part 3)
  
  
• Relevant features a "debate" on Calvinism in the form of interviews with Michael Horton and Roger Olson.
  
  
• I appreciate an article critical of Joel Osteen as much as the next guy, and this article in Salon makes some pretty good points. But was it really necessary to attack Calvinism in the process? The author writes: "Osteen's serene depictions of God's eternally uptending designs for the fates of individual believers are a sort of inverted Calvinism. Where the Puritan forebears of today's Protestant scene beheld a terrible, impersonal Creator whose rigid system of eternal reward and punishment dispatched many an infant and solemn believer to the pit of damnation, Osteen's God is an intensely personal presence, guiding believers out of pitfalls into inevitable glory and joy — not so much a raging Patriarch as a genial cruise director." That kind of ignorance lends little to journalistic credibility.
  
  
• The gospel shines brighter through the lens of the doctrines of grace.

This Week in Calvinism - April 27, 2012

• Steve Hays asks, "Is Roger Olson pretentious?"
  
  
• The Kentucky Baptist Convention will sponsor a conference on Calvinism in August to take an "objective look at today's most discussed theological issue."
  
  
• Jordan Hall is skeptical.
  
  
• According to Derek Ouellette, "Calvinism offers about as much security to the believer as full blown Pelagianism!"
  
  
• John Piper discusses his future at Desiring God.
  
  
• Seven ways to pray for your prayer life.

Chuck Colson Remembered

This Week in Calvinism - April 20, 2012

• Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, thinks that what the Calvinist resurgence needs to show more of "is an earnest commitment to global missions."

• Is Calvinism anti-missionary? Absolutely not, but more can be done. "At very least," writes Kenneth Stewart, "this is no time for evangelical Calvinists to be resting on the bare historical record of how our convictions have, in past, promoted missionary sacrifice; we must demonstrate that these same principles are operative now."

• Contemporary environmentalism's greatest religious debt is owed to...Calvinism?

• Anti-Calvinist crusader Kerrigan Skelly isn't interested in discussing his so-called "refutation" of Calvinism. I asked a couple of questions and was banned from posting anything further on his YouTube page.

• How people see Calvinists.

• Would Arminian Martin Glynn ever worship a Calvinist God? Yes, but he wouldn't like it.

• Books Tim Challies didn't review.

America: A Nation of Heretics

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has written a book entitled Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. In it he describes the sad state of religion in America, from how we twist the gospel for our own prosperity to the "messianic" status we assign to our political leaders.

Douthat, a conservative Catholic, discusses his book in this NPR interview:

The Book of Romans in 45 Tweets

We don't yet have a Twitter-ized version of the entire Bible, but we do have a nice summary of the Book of Romans:

Romans 1
The resurrected Lord Jesus has commissioned the advance of his gospel for the sake of his name among all nations (#Romans 1:1-7).

Serving God in the gospel of his Son and obligated to all peoples, preaching the gospel is marked by eagerness (#Romans 1:8-15).

The gospel is God's power that results in salvation for everyone who believes. Everyone who believes (#Romans 1:16-17).

God's wrath is made known against man's unrighteousness — all who rebel against God to worship creaturely stuff (#Romans 1:18-32).

Romans 2
You presuming upon God's kindness and refusing to repent is you storing up wrath for yourself on the day of judgment (#Romans 2:1-11).

A true Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is really a matter of the heart, by the Spirit (#Romans 2:12-29).

Romans 3
Jewish people are advantaged, entrusted with God's oracles. Their faithlessness doesn't nullfy the faithfulness of God (#Romans 3:1-8).

We're all the same, Jew and non-Jew. We're sinners. None is righteous, nobody. And we can't save ourselves (#Romans 3:9-20).

All who believe are justified by God's gift through Jesus, who bore the wrath we deserved. Our boasting is excluded (#Romans 3:21-31).

Romans 4
Abraham is faith's "Exhibit A". He trusted the one who justifies the ungodly and it was counted as righteousness (#Romans 4:1-12).

It all rests on God's grace, not works. The righteousness counted to Abraham is counted to us who believe in Jesus (#Romans 4:13-25).

Read the rest here.

Doug Wilson Responds to Tim Keller's Series on Evolution and Creation

Tim Keller wrote a six-part series of articles for BioLogos entitled "Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople." In those articles he addressed several questions regarding creation and evolution, discussing the relationship of biblical revelation and science.

After reading Keller's series, Doug Wilson had some questions of his own:

Keller does a fine job in stating the most formidable objection to theistic evolution, but then provides no adequate answer for it whatever. He says, "The process of evolution, however, understands violence, predation, and death to be the very engine of how life develops. If God brings about life through evolution, how do we reconcile that with the idea of a good God? The problem of evil seems to be worse for the believer in theistic evolution." If, as I believe, the answer to this dilemma is that we can't, Keller appears to grant this point by default because what I say we can't do, he doesn't do.

The reason for postulating millions of years of life on this planet is to provide an account for the fossil record. But the fossil record is made up entirely of bodies. It is a graveyard record. It is a record of death. But this means that Adam did not bring death into the world -- rather death brought Adam into the world. But Paul says that it was the other way around (Rom. 5:12). Moreover this would mean that God settled on millions of years of "nature red in tooth and claw" as His ideal means of creation -- entirely apart from any sin or rebellion on anyone's part -- and that He looked down on this agonistic morass and pronounced it good. Talk about the problem of evil.

Since the work of the Church in this world is the restoration of Eden, it is worth noting that theistic evolution mandates a complete reversal of the definition of creational good. It turns out that Eden was as bloody as the post fall world. What did we fall into then?

Read Wilson's full post here.

This Week in Calvinism - April 13, 2012

• Audio from the Together for the Gospel 2012 conference is available for download.
  
  
• For those of you unable to attend the conference, Tim Challies has the T4G book list.
  
  
• Charles Spurgeon on irresistible grace.
  
  
• This video from Kerrigan Skelly, "The Parable of the Wicked Fireman," is a weak and ignorant attempt to refute Calvinism, something he has been trying to do for some time now. I wonder how he would respond to my burning question for Arminians.
  
  
• Another anti-Calvinist video. This time it's Tim Warner explaining how this "evil and wicked doctrine" undermines God's character, making him "irrational and arbitrary."
  
  
• Mark Driscoll's scheduled speaking engagement at Liberty University is making waves.
  
  
• Mike Leake concludes his series of posts entitled "The Root of Angry and Divisive Calvinists."
  
  
• Reformation and rediscovery: an interview with Herman J. Selderhuis.

What to Do When You Run Out of Sermon Ideas

If your well has run dry, and you just can't come up with any compelling sermon ideas, do what Pastor John Van Sloten of New Hope Church does: let popular musicians do the preaching for you.

This Week in Calvinism - April 6, 2012

• Free ebook: What is the Reformed Faith? The High Points of Calvinism, by Thomas E. Tyson and G. I. Williamson.
  
  
• Uniting Calvinism and feminism?
  
  
• Christopher Macfarlane is bothered by the fact that James White considers Arminians to be brothers in the Lord.
  
  
• The Father's Cup, a Good Friday account by Rick Gamache.
  
  
• Audio and video from the recent event Race and the Christian, featuring John Piper, Tim Keller, and Anthony Bradley, are available for download.