For your consideration…a fresh new video from Soteriology101.com.
Tag Archives: Calvinism
Recommendations for Non-Calvinist Works
I’ve been pretty busy and unable to finish anything new to post today. However, I found something worthy of sharing, something I know many of you will appreciate.
Check out the information in the video I’m attaching and let Dr. Flowers know I sent you 🙂
Have a great Monday!
Filed under Apologetics, Christianity, grace, salvation, Theology
Let’s Get Controversial…Where Do the Babies Go?
Hanging Out
Right now I am sitting in the office of the Ringgold Wedding Chapel, just hanging out, so to speak.
I’m here, today, to officiate 3 weddings, but in one wedding that is about to take place the family brought their own minister.
I don’t feel like going and watching a wedding just for the fun of it, and I don’t want to sneak over and steal any food from the reception hall while the bride and groom are otherwise distracted. So, like I said, I’m just hanging out for a little while.
What a perfect time to stir up a theological stink, right?
Babies
We should be thanking God for the surging tide of pro-life sentiment sweeping much of our nation right now! I firmly believe that the killing of infants in the womb is murder, for I believe that each and every fetus is an actual human being, regardless whether or not they vote for Republicans or Democrats.
But all this talk about abortion, the right to life, and millions of babies has brought back to mind a conversation I read years ago on a Calvinistic website (Monergism.com). It was just one of several “conversations” that eventually pushed me from Calvinism and helped define my theological stance as that of “provisionist”
The conversation was between two pastors and the subject was the funeral for an infant.
The first pastor discussed how challenging it had been to preach the funeral for a child, just a baby of less than a year old. He went on to say that the only thing he could do to help the grieving parents cope with the loss was to reassure them that one day, some day, they would be reunited with their child in heaven (since both parents were believers).
The second pastor, however, brutally chastised the first pastor for giving the parents of the dead child a false hope! Yes, he rebuked the first pastor for telling the parents they would one day see their child again because – now get this – he had no way of knowing if the deceased baby was “one of the elect.”
The second pastor said a better thing to have told the parents would have been the truth…that if the baby had been one of the “elect” they would see him again, but there’s no way to know till we get to heaven.
I still remember the burning indignation that welled up within me as I read that. With my face flush, I hammered out on the keyboard something akin to the following: “If I had been one of those parents, and you had told me that about my child, I would have given you the opportunity to go see where my baby went.”
Where Do They Go?
But, let’s be honest, what else is the reasonable conclusion to the Calvinist position on this subject? Are all babies who die too early to have accepted Christ (including those murdered in the womb) members of the “elect,” or is there the possibility that some were predestined to salvation and others were predestined to damnation? Even though some of you Calvinist friends of mine might not believe in “double predestination,” what is your answer to this?
Are we going to accept the proposition that God, the one who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” is the same God who would, for His own pleasure, doom any number of consciousless infants to an eternity in hell? Is that EVEN a possibility within your theological systematic?
You may use the comment section to calmly and kindly discuss.
Filed under Abortion
There Is a Robust Response to Calvinism (IF You’ll Listen)
Many of you are Calvinists. I’m not.
Unfortunately, many think that there are no good arguments supporting a traditionalist view. Honestly, even many in my own denomination (SBC) have belittled and mocked the intelligence of those like myself for having not yet been enlightened by the “doctrines of grace.”
Let me put it this way, I know pastors who are more Calvinistic than John Calvin’s signature. These guys can get borderline contentious if you even suggest that Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 might not mean what they think it means (“inconceivable!”). To disagree with their interpretations is akin to attacking their tulip garden with a weed eater – they don’t like it.
However, I have attached video which offers a robust and biblical argument against the doctrine of reprobation as argued from Romans 9. I am not posting this to start a debate or argument. My purpose is to offer you another perspective of which you may not have heard.
Believe it or not, there are intelligent Bible scholars out there whose names don’t end with Piper, Keller, or Dever 😉 The only thing is that you must be willing to listen.
Just food for thought.
For further reading, below is a link to the article by Dr. Eric Hankins that is the subject of this video. It was originally published in the Journal of Baptist Theology & Ministry.
https://soteriology101.com/2018/04/09/romans-9-and-the-calvinist-doctrine-of-reprobation/
Let’s End the Election vs Free Will Debate
The years and years of debate between the seemingly polar-opposite doctrines of election and free will can now come to an end. Free coffee and donuts for all.
I submit to you two words:
Divine Ireconcilibility.
You’re welcome.
Filed under Bible Study, Christian Unity, Christianity, God, Theology, Uncategorized
Prayer of Salvation Controversy
Tough Topic
Sooooooo…. Here’s a good one for you guys to debate (atheists, skeptics, cultists, and otherwise non-believers need not participate):
Is the “sinner’s prayer” a good or bad thing?
Just the other day I read a great article by BJ (a follower) on The River Walk. The subject was “The Sinner’s Prayer,” and the text was Matthew 7:21.
Some big names in evangelicalism (David Platt, for example) have a problem with the sinner’s prayer. Many even claim that this type of prayer has led to a plethora of false conversions. Some even go so far as to claim this kind of prayer is a form of “works salvation.”
My Two Cents
Below is the comment I left on The River Walk (tworiversblog.com):
Where do I start? Where do I end? I’m a Baptist. I’m a Baptist pastor. I prayed the “prayer” as a child. I am born again. I have given altar calls. I have invited others to pray the “prayer” during invitations. There’s no way I can know who was born again…or not; only God knows. However, I can tell you about fruit.
No, the prayer doesn’t save; Jesus does. But what I see so often today is an attempt by many to belittle, malign, berate, and denigrate something that is precious and effective if presented in context with the true gospel message. I have seen it so many times: young, intellectual, up-and-coming theologians stirring up strife within the body of Christ, all the while holding on to the banner of grace, attempting to change, as if change itself was something divine. Why not accept the “sinners prayer” with a little more grace and along with it teach the fundamental doctrines on which it depends to be effective?
We ARE commanded to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved (Rom. 10:13). Is it not a “sinner’s prayer” when a sinner prays for salvation? Yes, I believe that there have been many false conversions brought about by head-hunting preachers and evangelists leading silent, congregational “sinner’s prayers.” That is why when I give an invitation I always explain that true salvation will result in public confession (Matt. 10:32-33). In other words, I never say “Pray with me…” and then ask people to come forward. I say that if one is truly repentant, truly understands his need of new birth, truly finds himself humbled at the foot of the cross, then he will have no problem coming to an altar, making a public profession, and then being baptized.
So, to sum this up…sorry for the length…I was saved at the age of 6 (I’m 47) when I realized that I was a sinner, was going to hell, and that the only way to heaven was to accept God’s gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t have been able to recite the Apostle’s Creed, the Baptist Faith and Message, or even the Ten Commandments, but I knew I was lost. My dad led me to a little Sunday school room where we knelt at a little table, and it was there that my dad, a humble, former moonshiner, led me in the “sinner’s prayer,” because I didn’t know any better way to say what was in my little heart. That was the day I was saved, and I thank God my dad prayed with me.
That’s my 2 cents.
Well? Let’s discuss it.
Just to be Doing It
Sometimes one must write something just to be doing it. That is what I am doing right now.
It has been a few days since I posted on The Recovering Legalist, but it is not because I have not been working. As a matter of fact, I struggled three days straight with posts for my other blog, Proverbial Thought. On top of that, I have been doing a lot of reading and writing in my seminary classes (yes, I am going to school in the summer). So, I have been busy.
But this blog is my baby. It feels like I have abandoned my offspring when I don’t post an article at least once a week. Is that obsessive? Maybe. On the other hand, I have children, and this baby never has a dirty diaper. No wonder I’m so attached.
And it’s MY baby! Unlike our walking, whining, room-messing progeny, this baby is the product of my labor. My wife had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, I had to simultaneously take pictures and video during the birth of our girls. What does my wife do with this blog? NOTHING. And it looks nothing like her, either.
There are things I want to write about. For instance, I have been wanting to address the “Mitt Romney at Liberty University” thing (I was against it for religious reasons). I want to share some thoughts about the up-coming election (and make my liberal friends angry).
However, there are some things, now that I think about it, that I will probably NEVER write about. Here are some examples:
- Calvinism vs. Arminianism (or Agrarianism, as spell-check wants me to say). I am staunchly neither. Don’t try to convert me. You’re both wrong, and you’re both right, so there.
- The science behind why cats, no matter where you are in the world, will come to you if you say, “Kitty kitty!” Yet, badgers won’t come to you, no matter what you say.
- Computers.
- Dating. Except when I am addressing the unlikely possibility of my daughters going out with guys who don’t own a belt.
- Justin Bieber.
- Bowel Movements (why are seniors so obsessed with this topic?)
- Dr. Oz.
- Sopapilla recipes.
- Dog grooming.
- Why good food tastes bad and bad food tastes good, yet “big is beautiful,” but I feel fat.
But I’m always glad to talk about Jesus. How ’bout you?
Filed under Humor, self-worth, voting, worship
The Recovering Legalist 