Quote to consider

Short Response to so-called 4-Point Calvinists

This is a quick response I wrote to someone who claimed to be a four-pointer:

A 4-point calvinist is actuallly an impossible suppostion. Consider, if you affirm the doctrine of irresistible grace (as all 4-pointers claim to do), then you already believe in limited atonement, because irresistible grace comes from Christ and Christ alone, and this effectual grace is granted to the elect only. In other words, Christ died for the elect in a way (a redemptive way to procure irresistible grace) which he did not for the non-elect. Irresistible grace is not some generic grace to be had apart from Christ, for all redemptive blessings flow from Christ, including that one. For Jesus purchased with his blood, men from every tribe, nation, language (Rev 5:9). The doctrines of grace are, therefore, Christocentric, with Christ always at the top of the chiasm, making all other graces effectual and meaningful. In other words, to reject the "L" is to remove Christ from the equation and make the doctrines of grace into a theological abstraction. So ultimately 4-point Calvinism is no Calvinism at all for Christ is the center of all true Calvinism. More specifically 4-point Calvinism is simply being inconsistent with what they already know: Irresistible grace is not Christless.

Solus Christus
John

Posted by John on September 4, 2009 03:11 PM

Stolen from Justin Taylor who borrowed it from Mark Talbot

The Difference between Teachability and Subservience

Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book (p. 140):

Teachability is often confused with subservience. A person is wrongly thought to be teachable if he is passive and pliable. On the contrary, teachability is an extremely active virtue. No one is really teachable who does not freely exercise his power of independent judgment. He can be trained, perhaps, but not taught. The most teachable reader is, therefore, the most critical. He is the reader who finally responds to a book by the greatest effort to make up his own mind on the matters the author has discussed.

Forget "Big Brother" - You're neighbor might be watching you!

That is directly from the White House blog site. I didn't doctor the address or the content.

Somebody should tag this blog post and send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. Although, technically, this isn't a rumor.

Imagine if George Bush (either of them) had asked for citizens to inform upon websites/blogs/emails that opposed their position on the war in Iraq. There would have be a media outcry.

Homeland Security may have tapped phones - Pres. Obama wants YOU to effectively "tap" your web and email.

HT: DJP at Biblical Christianity

30 Years

I am going to my 30-Year John Glenn High School (Bay City, MI) reunion today. I haven't been to any previous reunions. Facebook has reacquainted me with some of my associates of way-back-when and I thought it would be interesting and fun to attend this year.
I downloaded pages from my graduating class's yearbook - I recognize names and faces (some more dimly than others) - but realize I haven't thought of many of these folks at all for 30 years.
I was kind of introverted in HS. I didn't go to ball games, extra curricular activities. I went to school, went to work, went to church.
I did get asked to pray at our graduation ceremony - imagine that, public prayer in school. One of the last things my classmates would recall of me, if they remember at all, is that during the prayer I asked that God would help them to find their true fulfillment in Jesus Christ. I don't remember the exact words - but I know the gist of that was included. God did specifically answer that prayer (I found out 29 years later) by redeeming my HS buddy. In his words, "God plucked the heart of stone from my chest and replaced it with a heart of flesh." I am excited to see if He performed that work of Grace in the lives of others.
Today will be great.

"...there are more great books out there..."

"If you don’t enjoy a book, stop reading and move on to something else–no matter how famous it is. Life is too short and there are too many books to spend time reading things you don’t like. I spent way to many hours trying to force myself to read The Sound and the Fury before I realized that I just wasn’t going to enjoy it. Give each book a fair chance, but keep in mind that there are more great books out there than you will ever have time to read, so don’t get stuck on one that you just don’t enjoy." from 11 Steps Toward Developing a Superior Mind

I did tough it through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - because a friend persevered through it. It was hard to "read" [50+ hours as an audio book] - but it was worth it.

You should add this site to your blog reader

Another reason to like Randy Alcorn:

Certainly my heart goes out to Tiller's family. Regardless of the evil
he committed, I’m sure they loved him. I know nothing about his killer
or his beliefs, but if he was motivated by revenge, he ignored God's
warning, "Do not take revenge . . . Vengeance is Mine; I will repay" (Rom. 12:19).

I
don't hate the abortionists I know. I pity them and pray for them. But
that doesn't change the ugliness of what they do. President Obama said
in response to the murder, "However profound our differences as
Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be
resolved by heinous acts of violence." But we dare not forget the heinous acts of violence being committed daily in every abortion clinic in the nation.

Read the entire post here: Some Thoughts on the Killing of Abortionist George Tiller

Distributing Stones

When sharing any information there is always the risk that you'll be misunderstood. It is a risk worth taking. Hopefully your sharing will make someone seek to clarify through further questions and research on their part [that is always a goal of mine]. Greg Koukl of STR.org refers to this as putting "a stone in their shoe."

Randy Alcorn encourages me to be clear - but not seek to qualify every statement I make.

Question by CJ Mahaney to Randy Alcorn:
What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

“It is impossible to make a balanced statement.”

You can spend all day qualifying what you’re saying and removing the punch from it. Jesus made many statements that have to be clarified by others (e.g. plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand, and hating your family). But it is a mistake to strip such statements of their power by immediately modifying them and saying what they don’t mean instead of what they do. I think we are free to make prophetic statements without always qualifying them.

See the full post here: Meet Randy Alcorn

Piper on President Obama's support for abortion

No, Mr. President. Killing Is Killing No Matter What We Call It.

May 13, 2009  |  By: John Piper
Category: Commentary

It's a magnificent thing: The only newly-originating life in the
universe that comes in the image of God is Man. The only
newly-originating life in the universe that lasts forever is Man.

This is an awesome thing.

And, as everyone knows, that reverence is not shared by our new President, over whom we have rejoiced.

He is trapped and blind in a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he released this statement,

We are reminded that this decision not only protects
women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader
principle: that government should not intrude on our most private
family matters.

To which I say:

• No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women; you are authorizing the destruction of 500,000 little women every year.
• No,
  Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are
  authorizing the destruction of freedom for one million little human
  beings every year.
• No, Mr. President, killing our children
  is killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private
  family matter. You may say it is a private family matter over and over
  and over, and still they are dead. And we killed them. And you, would
  have it remain legal.

Mr. President, some of us wept for joy at your inauguration. And we pledge that we will pray for you.

We have hope in our sovereign God.

(From the sermon: "The Baby in My Arms Leaped for Joy.")