Well, I guess there has been some progress. At least now I know that yes, brother Briggs was making reference to me, hence, I am a dangerous man to be warned about globally, evidently. I doubt I will get much in the way of serious response about the allegation of kenoticism. It is all wrapped up in the use of […]
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You can tell when certain folks have just completely run out of meaningful commentary and argumentation, or, never possessed any to begin with. When people argue that someone who accepts the biblical teaching of God’s sovereign decree, election, the perfection of the atonement, etc., should, as a result, not engage in apologetics, not seek justice for the pre-born, not prophetically […]
The post On the Decree and the Actions of God’s Elect appeared first on Alpha and Omega Ministries.
Well, I should probably just get on my bike and let this whole thing blow over, but, I really can’t. There are some important points that, as is normally the case, are being lost in the fog of battle. Maybe someday someone will go, “Hey, there were some folks who really did try to encourage everyone to chill out and […]
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the more they stay the same. That’s the old adage. And in a sense, it is quite true. Recently the topic of Roman Catholicism has been front and center on Twitter. Taylor Marshall, a convert to Roman Catholicism (of some sort, anyway, though surely not the same sort as Pope Francis holds), has been posting short, sort of “in your […]
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The Paris Treaty of 1783, which brought an official end to the Revolutionary War and acknowledged the existence of the United States of America, began in this thoroughly secular, Darwinian, non-binary, marry whoever you want at any age you want, way: In the Name of the most Holy and undivided Trinity. We live in a day when acknowledging the “Name […]
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Over the centuries many interpretations have been offered for the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Outside of the basic understanding that these letters represent the state of these local churches in the first century, others have viewed them as representing ages of the church down through history. It is easy to see how this is an […]
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Last evening I spent a few hours talking with a former Christian, now a “skeptic.” Andrew Rappaport had me join him for the discussion, which I thought was going to be more on the history of the NT, manuscripts, etc., but turned out to be a more general “there’s just no evidence” exchange. You can watch it here. You will […]
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A new book has dropped by a convert to Roman Catholicism, R.R. Reno, The End of Interpretation: Reclaiming the Priority of Ecclesial Exegesis. Anyone can immediately see the relevance to the current downgrade amongst Reformed Baptists and the Reformed community more broadly with reference to sola scriptura and scriptural sufficiency. I posted a picture of the cover, front and back, […]
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Evidently it does not matter how plainly I speak, or write. There are those who simply refuse to hear, or read. I truly know how Doug Wilson must feel…daily. Let’s try this again. The issue is the exegesis of a particular text of Scripture that is very difficult. Do we say its intended meaning, both as the author wrote it, […]
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While going over Calvin’s rebuttal of Sadoleto’s letter from 1539, I read a paragraph where Calvin held Sadoleto’s argument to a biblical standard. Calvin was a scholar of the early church. He cites from patristic sources regularly. He read widely in what was available to him in his day. And yet he gave us an example of what it means […]
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Evidently our Great Tradition Baptist thought leaders have decided to stay far, far away from actually telling us how we can define the GT in light of the Second Nicene Council, as per Monday’s Dividing Line. Fully understandable! The reality is, these men have no *consistent* way of disambiguating the traditions in theology proper they wish to demand of us […]
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צְדָקָ֥ה תְרֽוֹמֵֽם־גּ֑וֹי וְחֶ֖סֶד לְאֻמִּ֣ים חַטָּֽאת δικαιοσύνη ὑψοῖ ἔθνος, ἐλασσονοῦσι δὲ φυλὰς ἁμαρτίαι. Proverbs 14:34. The LXX provides a good translation here. Righteousness lifts up, exalts, a people, a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people, nation. LXX: lessens any people. [Note the Hebrew form for “reproach” is chesed, which some assume comes from an Aramaic root, hence, shame, but […]
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Ask yourself a question: have you seriously engaged the study of Scripture, so that you have basic, foundational hermeneutical principles clearly in your thinking? Are you considering the original context, author, audience, and the genre of what you are reading (didactic, poetry, etc.)? Are you looking to the entire argument of the book or epistle, and then, finally, to the […]
The post Do You Really Believe and Practice Sola Scriptura? appeared first on Alpha and Omega Ministries.
The importance of sola scriptura can be seen when men who thought they held to it begin moving away from it, and express their newfound objections. Of course, which road they are traveling will say a lot about the consistency of their arguments. So, let’s say you are headed down the road for Rome, or Constantinople, or, if you lack […]
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So I was finishing up my 21st conference at Covenant of Grace Church in St. Charles when I heard people talking about “the coming storm.” So I started looking at the weather and my travel plans. Let’s just say I am thankful that I invested an extra four hours of travel today and have managed to get myself out of […]
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I would like to briefly respond to an argument presented by Dr. Tim Stratton which he styles the Omni Argument Against Calvinism: 1- If Calvinism is true, whomever God provides “irresistible grace” to will go to heaven and not suffer eternal hell. 2- If God is omnibenevolent, He would not desire to, nor would He, send anyone to suffer eternal […]
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I preached a message at a funeral last evening. One of the dear, dear women of our fellowship passed away last week, leaving her wonderful husband and children to deal with all the proper realities of Christian grieving (anyone old enough to love is old enough to grieve), which is always grief in the presence of hope, and yes, even […]
The post What Does Supernatural Look Like? appeared first on Alpha and Omega Ministries.
I really hate to waste Christmas Eve on this kind of stuff, I really do. It is honestly depressing that folks who *should* be willing to read and listen fairly are unwilling to do so. I do not know what is behind all of this, but maybe someday I will figure it out. I have used pretty much all of […]
The post Person, Subsistence, and Debating Roger Perkins appeared first on Alpha and Omega Ministries.
Just a note to announce I intend to interact with the presentation in Dr. James Dolezal’s books, God without Parts: Divine Simplicity and the Metaphysics of God’s Absoluteness (2011) and All That Is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism (2017), especially by using the audio from his presentations on these topics to the Southern California […]
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I just saw that Dr. Stratton just posted a further video in the “we won’t listen to the other side but will accuse the other side of not listening” saga that, personally, I’m finished with. But I wanted to note the description which, I assume, comes from Dr. Stratton directly: First, there was nothing in the structure of my discussion […]
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Just a quick thought. I have always liked tech. OK, I was NOT in the tiny little group of nerds who did the Tandy computer thing in high school with the cassette tape recorder as the “drive,” but I wasn’t too far behind. I wear Garmin watches that connect to my iPhone and I am typing this on an incredibly […]
I recently saw a comment on Facebook by someone named John Cranman. I will be honest: the name did not ring any bells with me until I did a search and discovered that the gentleman I discussed Romans 9 with on Unbelievable in London was named John Cranman. Assuming we are dealing with the same individual, this sort of makes […]
Someone asked me a question yesterday that basically said, “Don’t you think Bahnsen would have done better than you against Craig?” I actually smile at such questions, though there is a tinge of sadness, too. We all miss Greg, and most of us wonder what he could have accomplished had God given him a much longer life. And I am […]
The following is a Twitter thread (hence the “choppiness” and brevity required in that context). The fact that the structures of the SBC seem to be intent upon defending Litton and making his plagiarism just “go away” tells us much about the future value of continuing to support those entities without any real chance of effecting change within them (as […]
One of the things I really enjoyed about our initial jaunt into roadtripping was getting to meet new folks in smaller churches. I met with the elders of a church in Las Vegas, Redeemer Community Church and had dinner with them. I aged 1000 years when I realized that their oldest elder is just a bit younger than my youngest […]
Two new books to point you to this morning! Jason Lisle has finally released his book on Fractals, which he told me he was going to write years ago. I love fractal art, and have been using various fractal generation programs since the late 1990s. I’ve ordered my copy! Jeffrey Johnson has written a work appraising the theology of Thomas […]
Two new books to point you to this morning! Jason Lisle has finally released his book on Fractals, which he told me he was going to write years ago. I love fractal art, and have been using various fractal generation programs since the late 1990s. I’ve ordered my copy! Jeffrey Johnson has written a work appraising the theology of Thomas […]
Recently a graphic appeared that gave quotes from Tim Keller (2011), JD Greear (2019), and Ed Litton (2020). The last two are parroting Keller, and Litton, as seems to be the norm, is parroting, directly, Greear. Now, my point is not the plagiarism scandal that is showing just how corrupt the SBC leadership his right now. My point is the […]
By now everyone has seen the original statement of faith from Redemption Church where Ed Litton pastors, and most have at least had the opportunity to watch his appearance on CNN talking about Critical Race Theory. The problem we face with the new President of the SBC (who has tremendous power in assigning people to committees which, as we saw […]
