Ronnie W. Rogers, “Taking every thought captive…”

Of course the answer to this question not only relates to the issues addressed, but also with the problem of evil, and every evil, harmful act…that is a part of our existence; however I have addressed that particular issue in another blog. This one seeks to explain my belief about the origin of sin as it relates to being a “minor calvinist”.  The following is a summary of what I affirm and disaffirm regarding this issue. (more…)

I believe that God has been, is and will always be ruling over the plans, ideas or rulings of angels or man.  I do not believe that man can ever thwart the plan of God.  I believe that God granting sinners a real choice to accept His gracious provision of salvation ”by grace through faith” is more consistent with God’s sovereignty when considered in light of the totality of the picture presented in scripture and the fullness of the person of God.

Consequently, I do believe and extol the sovereignty of God, but I do not believe that necessitates or is even enhanced by viewing it through the lens of Calvinism. (more…)

I affirm that God’s predetermination and foreknowledge are coextensive; therefore, God foreknows what He predetermines and predetermines what He foreknows; moreover, the distinction between predestining something to happen a certain way and predestining to allow some human freedom to affect outcomes are both within the scope of the biblical meaning of predestination and/or foreknowledge and compatible with and demonstrative of sovereignty so long as He made the decision freely, thereby being a part of His plan rather than contrary to His plan, which He did in fact do.

I disaffirm that God’s infallible foreknowledge or predetermination caused man to sin or spend eternity in hell;¹ further, that foreknowledge or predetermination eliminates real free choices of man in salvation and the first sin. Further, that God’s foreknowledge of events, which makes certain their coming to pass, means that he was the efficient cause² or in any way the direct cause of every event to come to pass or that comes to pass, although, He is the ultimate cause. Moreover, that foreknowledge is the same as causation because epistemology (study of knowledge) deals with foreknowledge and etiology (study of cause) deals with causation, and to conflate the two is a fallacious confusion of categories.³ Afortiori, the scripture ties salvation to God’s foreknowledge⁴ on more than one occasion (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2).

Next Topic: Double Predestination

1. The Calvinist position that God elected to regenerate some and all that He regenerates will necessarily believe inescapably leaves God with determining to send some to hell who could have been spared that torment if He would have chosen for them to, since all that He elects to regenerate must believe and all that He chooses not to regenerate cannot believe. This is in contrast to the position I am espousing whereby God enables all to have a real choice of whether to believe or not, and those who go to hell are there because they rejected a real chance to not be there. [↩]
2. He is the ultimate cause of all good, the direct (efficient) cause of many things, but other events (sin) happen because He created “efficient causes,” e.g., man and his ability to choose. [↩]
3. I am not saying that all knowledgeable Calvinists do this, but it is a common mistake among young Calvinists, some older and many ponderers. [↩]
4. Foreknowledge is not the same as predestination; the very sentence before us distinguishes the two. “His foreknowledge marks out the persons; His predestination determines His purposes and acts on their behalf.” (W. E. Vines, Commentary on Romans 8:29 [↩]

Recently ALEXANDRA ALTER wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about church discipline.  While the story includes references to a few different churches that practice church discipline, the article focuses on the discipline of Mrs. Caskey by Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, pastored by Jason Burrick.

Of course, the pastor is presented as having a personal axe to grind with Mrs. Caskey who in turn is referred to as a “71-year-old…church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension” and later refers to her as “a devout Christian and grandmother of three”.  You know an angel in human form. 

Alter refers to the practice of church discipline being based upon “a passage in the gospel of Matthew that says unrepentant sinners must be shunned,” and things made public which were “confessed … in confidence.” While I cannot comment on the legitimacy of this particular case since I do not know all the facts, a consideration not given by Alexandra since she makes her view quite apparent.  I can comment on the article and the biblical practice. (more…)

 Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches is edited by Thomas White, Jason G. Duesing, and Malcolm B. Yarnell III.  This book is a must read for anyone concerned about restoring the biblical identity, value, vitality, and purity of the local church.  The authors not only remind us that the local church in both its essence and mission is not a social construct but a spiritual body governed by the New Testament. 

Since every believer shares some responsibility in building the local church, it behooves pastors and laymen alike to know and understand the privileges and responsibilities associated with being a follower of Christ and a part of a local body of believers.  (more…)

As Christians, we desire to know and follow God’s plan for our lives and this is true in the area of procreation as well.  However, with advances in modern technology offering more and more options to augment or even replace natural relations between a husband and wife, what was once a quite simple decision has become daunting at best.

Steven Goodspeed presented a paper in The Round Table that I thought would be helpful for anyone wanting to understand the biblical teaching on procreation as well as the important differences between the Catholic and Protestant views of birth control, various kinds of contraception and which ones have an abortive purpose or risk, what is being taught in Sex Education classes, and where this has and is leading our young people. (more…)

As Christians we are often confronted with questions concerning the trustworthiness of Scripture.  For example, someone may say, “It must have mistakes since it was written by men” or ask “how can the Bible be accurate when there are so many translations?”  They may point out what they see, or have been told, are unresolvable problems like “how did Noah get and keep all those animals on the ark” or the differences in the various gospels account of events in Christ’s life.  They may say, “men determined what books would make up the Bible” which implies that the Bible is merely a human book.

The following is a list of books to help you learn the answers to such questions and be able to have a more mature understanding of the trustworthiness of the Scripture.  I have also included a book to help you learn how to study the Scripture.
(more…)

As an introduction to Mark Park’s article on Rob Bell’s book “Velvet Elvis”, I mentioned my lack of success in finding adequate reason to be anything but even more disenchanted with Bell’s Velvet Elvis than Gina was with my first encounter with the Velvet Elvis portrait of years ago.

Well, this prompted someone to request what “specifically” I found objectionable about Bell’s book.  Consequently, I wrote an evaluation of the book, which highlights some of the areas, which cause me deep concern.  Part of the reason I responded with some detail is because the problems I address in his book also highlight some of the problems found in the general area of the “Emergent Church”.

For those of you who want a briefer evaluation, I recommend the one by Mark Park, just search Velvet Elvis.  

Velvet Elvis: Revisited

Here is a question that I answered recently, which I thought might be helpful to some who have had the same question or one of a similar nature.  The first paragraph is the question that I received and the last two are my answer. (more…)

The following is intended to summarize our seven week study of the biblical teaching on healing and examination of the claims of modern day faith healers in light of Scripture.  I encourage you to listen to the entire series on healing if you were not present when we studied this together. 
 
The series on healing is really a part of a larger study of 1 Corinthians 12-14 and other related biblical passages.  This study examines these verses in their historical and biblical context.  (more…)