Tributes to my dad

On August 7th, my dad will celebrate his 88th birthday. At the church my folks attend their pastor asked members to write tributes to either their fathers or their husbands. He intended to read the tributes on Father's Day in the morning service. My mother wrote a tribute to my dad, but had "cold feet" and didn't hand it in. Her neighbor gave it to the pastor later and he read it in the Wednesday night service.

Here is what my mother wrote:

When he was young he had a dream of going to Bible College but I was such a backward farm girl that I knew I could never cope with that kind of life. When he got his call to the army I was happy to get married because that other life was now set aside.

What happened is history. But what if we had not gone to Jamaica? We would not have all these wonderful children. They all have sand in their shoes. Barbie and Kieron are going there on a Mission trip in July. Brian has been there a number of times. He and daughter Sarah were there two years ago. Marianne and girls were there recently for camp and Billy and Sharon are just about there. So praise the Lord for John McKillop and his dream.

My sister Barbara, and her husband Kieron along with a team from their church, leave for Jamaica tomorrow. She also wrote a tribute.

Hi Dad,

I wanted to write a tribute to you for Father’s Day and this is a little late so will write in honor of your upcoming 88th birthday. Anyway, I think every day should be Father’s Day! I just want you to know how much I love and appreciate you. I know so many young people who have never had the privilege of having a father who cared for them or who takes an active interest in their lives. I am so thankful that you took the leadership role in our home and loved us. It was not difficult for me as a child to understand the love of our Heavenly Father when you demonstrated His love by your earthly example.

I have so many wonderful memories of very special times together and one of the most treasured memories I have is of hiking up St. Catherine’s Peak starting with a very filling breakfast of eggs, bacon and hardo bread that you cooked for us at the little park in the Blue Mountains before beginning the hike. I also remember hiking across the old farm in Canada and stopping for our most favorite treats of chocolate bars and grapes. Must be why I enjoy walking outdoors so much. Another great memory is of the early morning swim times at Doctor’s Cave and stopping by the bread truck for fresh warm, “bula cakes.”

I have always enjoyed your stories of life experiences from childhood to adulthood, courtship of Mom and especially Army life. I love the way you always sit with your Bible first thing in the morning and will never forget your admonition to make it the first reading material for the day.

Not too many girls can have their father give them away at their wedding and officiate as the pastor also and I count it a privilege that you were there for such a special day. You have been right there through all of my married life to this point, helping with grandbabies and now grand ladies, fixing whatever needed to be repaired and helping out with multitudes of chores, especially the lawn mowing. It has been such a privilege having you and Mom spend the winter months with us in Florida and I look forward to your return next year. This is just a tiny bit of a heart full of gratitude to you for your Godly example, your love, your wisdom and your care for me.

I love you,

Barbie

My daughter Charity also wrote a tribute to her grandpa.

I believe that our family's strength comes from the leadership of Grandpa. I have so many good memories of being with him. I always loved riding the 4 wheeler at the Acres, listening to stories, hearing him pray, and watching him laugh. I remember one time he told me if I didn't help pick tomatoes from the garden, I wouldn't get to eat any. That was a great application from the classic Bible story. I love tomatoes so I helped. When I was little and they were visiting us in Chattanooga, a thunderstorm woke me up. Grandpa held me while I cried and shared his ice cream with me. A photograph of that event is one of my favorites. My own father has followed that example numerous times as I cried over boys and being a teenager, life decisions, etc. As the heavenly Father does, he held me until I stopped crying and helped me figure out the best solution or told me it would be okay. My beloved husband does that for me also.

I've always loved Grandpa's poetry, especially the poems he wrote for Raj and Caleb. And we had so much fun especially last summer watching Grandpa joke with us about that purple camouflage hat!!!

I love you Grandpa and I look forward to many more family times with you!

~Char

Google Reader Redux

On October 30, 2007 I wrote an article about Google Reader.

Abraham Piper, at Desiring God, wrote an article about the same thing today. His article goes into more detail than mine did, and has step-by-step instructions on setting up Google Reader, including screenshots.

If you want to use Google Reader to keep up with posts on the blogs you enjoy reading, Abraham's article will be very helpful.

Good article

Kevin T. Bauder is the President of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. He writes occasional essays for In The Nick of Time.

His article from last Friday is Calvinism, Arminianism, Biblicism.

You may read the article here or download a PDF of the article here.

Grace - an article

Dan Phillips, one of the Pyromaniacs has written an excellent article, titled Grace: eighteen affirmations and denials. It is worth a read.

The Logic of Both Calvinism and Arminianism

I link many of my articles under the Theology label to Sharper Iron (SI) for further discussion. My recent article titled Free Will generated some wonderful discussion that continued for twenty pages before it was closed down by a moderator. It also led, indirectly, to the banning of a commenter, who denied original sin in his posts, since SI members are required to affirm the doctrinal statement.

In a post (page 1, #4) on that thread one respondent wrote of Calvinism as, "merely a philosopher's attempt to complicate the simplicity of Salvation." In a subsequent post (page 5, #29) he explained that the reason he "called Calvinism a philosophy" was because "the arguments presented by the strong Calvinists are such circular arguments that it truly becomes a philosophical argument and not a logical, rational argument."

In response to his statements, I wrote (page 19, #130) of my intent to write this article showing that "each of the approaches to understanding salvation is an internally consistent philosophy." My purpose is not to defend Calvinism nor critique Arminianism, but simply to show that both views are logically consistent.

In an article titled Calvinist & Arminian Presuppositions, Joseph M. Gleason shows that both Calvinism and Arminianism flow logically from certain presuppositional starting points. He states that:

Calvinists often use the following type of reasoning: God is Sovereign. He is in control of everything. That's their starting point, and everything else in their theology flows from there.

Arminians often use the following type of reasoning: God is fair. And God is love. He knows that love, hate, punishment, and reward cannot exist without men being morally able to choose either good or evil. For the Arminian, that's the starting point, and everything else in their theology flows from there.

In another article, titled An Introduction to Calvinism, Gleason writes:

It should first be understood that Calvinism is a highly logical, systematic, and interconnected system of belief that relate(s) to our spiritual nature and ultimately our salvation.

Jeff Paton, in an article titled A New Strategy For Refuting Eternal Security, states that:

Five point Calvinism is a thoroughly consistent system that could truly contend for the position as the genuine theology of God. It meets the criteria of consistency. Arminianism is the theological opposite of Calvinism. Arminianism is also thoroughly consistent forwards and backwards within itself. The Arminian system of theology is also a contender as the true theology of God since it is also non-contradictory.

In another article, titled The Last Refuge of Calvinism, Paton writes:

In theological debate, both Calvinism and Arminianism have their longstanding traditions and arguments. Both systems attempt to make sense of Biblical passages and reconcile them to the whole. But the strength of Calvinism relies on another factor outside of the Bible which is valued as much, if not more than the Bible, i.e., unassailable logic. In their system of theology, one doctrine builds upon the other with perfect consistency with the whole.

On his blog, in an article titled John MacArthur on Calvinism and Premillennialism..., David Sliker writes:

The line of thinking behind Calvinism is a logical progression that begins with the critical premise - total depravity.

Since Calvinism is noted for the TULIP acrostic, I will use the order of the acrostic to present both Calvinism and Arminianism.

Calvinism

• Total Depravity
• Unconditional Election
• Limited Atonement
• Irresistible Grace
• Perseverance of the Saints

Death, both spiritual and physical, was the effect of the sin of Adam. Man's spiritual death not only alienates him from God, but also hinders him from seeking to be reconciled to God. In order for there to be reconciliation, God must initiate such, but there is no inherent obligation on the part of God to initiate reconciliation. He therefore has the right to choose with whom he wants to be reconciled and thus the basis of His choice is His own free will. God also provides the sacrifice to atone for those and only those whom He has chosen. Since he has chosen a fixed number with whom to be reconciled and has provided the sacrifice that makes such reconciliation possible, it is certain that all those chosen will be forever reconciled.

Arminianism

• Deprivation
• Conditional Election
• Unlimited Atonement
• Resistible Grace
• Assurance and Security

Death, both spiritual and physical, was the effect of the sin of Adam. Man's spiritual death not only alienates him from God, but also hinders him from seeking to be reconciled to God. Prevenient grace (see below) is provided to every individual by God, giving the individual the capability of seeking reconciliation with God. Since all mankind now has the capability, election must be conditioned on each individual's response to the provided grace. The sacrifice God provided was for every individual, whether or not they respond positively to the provided grace. The provided grace must be resistible since it is evident that not all respond positively to it. Assurance is not guaranteed since man may choose to turn away from the grace that he once chose to turn toward.

The Articles of the Remonstrants did not take a firm stand on assurance and security. The last sentence of Article 5 states:

But whether they are capable, through negligence, of forsaking again the first beginning of their life in Christ, of again returning to this present evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of losing a good conscience, of neglecting grace, that must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full confidence of our mind.

We conclude then that both Calvinism and Arminianism flow logically and rationally from a presuppositional starting point. To claim that either approach is neither logical or rational is to misunderstand that which each position affirms and rejects.

Addendum: Prevenient Grace

Article 4 of the Remonstrants pertains to Prevenient Grace.

That this grace of God is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of all good, even to this extent, that the regenerate man himself, without prevenient or assisting, awakening, following and cooperative grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil; so that all good deeds or movements, that can be conceived, must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. but respects the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible; inasmuch as it is written concerning many, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. Acts 7, and elsewhere in many places.

In an article titled Prevenient Grace, Robert L. Brush begins by defining prevenient:

The word "prevenient" is based upon two Latin words which mean "to come before." While this is not the way in which we normally use the word "prevenient" or "prevent," for our purposes in this article we will use the original meaning of this word. Thus prevenient or preliminary grace refers to the operation of God's grace before we turn to God. Implied is the concept that God's drawing grace precedes the human response of faith.

In an article titled A Short Response to the Arminian Doctrine of Prevenient Grace, John Hendryx writes:

In short, they (Arminians) affirm that prevenient grace, which is given to all men at some point in their life, temporarily brings the sinner out of his/her condition of total depravity and puts them in a neutral state of free will wherein the natural man can either accept or reject Christ.

In an article about John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, R. G. Tuttle Jr. describes Wesley's view of Prevenient Grace as:

…the universal work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people between conception and conversion. Original sin, according to Wesley, makes it necessary for the Holy Spirit to initiate the relationship between God and people. Bound by sin and death, people experience the gentle wooing of the Holy Spirit, which prevents them from moving so far from "the way" that when they finally understand the claims of the gospel upon their lives, he guarantees their freedom to say yes. This doctrine constitutes the heart of Wesley's Arminianism.

Jeff Paton, in an article titled Prevenient Grace, writes:

...the condition of faith must be freely exercised by the will of man that has been enabled by the prevenient grace of God.

...the notion that the grace of God is given freely to all men at the time of their coming into the world is, according to Wesley, clearly manifest in the Scriptures.

Disclaimer:
Links in this article are provided solely for information purposes,
and do not in any way imply full and complete endorsement.

I have a cat, I have a Christmas Tree

I have a cat. His name is Captain Jack. He is stupid. He likes to look out the window and watch the birds and squirrels in the trees.

I have a Christmas Tree. My wife bought it Saturday night because it was the last tree in the store and needed a family for Christmas, just like Percy, the Puny Poinsettia. It also was priced right! We added a canary as part of the decorations.


Sunday morning when I came down the hall towards the living room I heard jingling sounds coming from the tree. I guessed that Jack was swatting at one of the ornaments and looked all around the base of the tree for him, but he was not there. Then I looked in the tree and there he was, stuck in the beads. He must have wanted to play with the bird in the tree.

Disclaimer:
Links in this article are provided solely for information purposes,
and do not in any way imply full and complete endorsement.

Building Bridges Conference MP3s

Two weeks ago a conference was held at Lifeway's Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina. The conference was titled Building Bridges: Southern Baptists and Calvinism. I was unable to attend the conference because I was in Orlando beginning my training as a show host with The Healthy Gourmet.

Lifeway graciously provided MP3s of the conference sessions on their website. However, I had a difficult time downloading the files because when I right-clicked and saved the links I ended up with a HTML file instead of an MP3 file. I was eventually able to download the files through a slightly complicated process. As a result, I am providing direct links to the MP3s below in case you want to listen to the sessions. Left-click to listen or right-click to download.

11/26/07 - Calvinism and SBC Leadership: Key Findings and Evangelistic Implications
Ed Stetzer

11/26/07 - The Historical Record
David Dockery
Tom Nettles

11/27/07 - Calvinism: A Cause for Rejoicing, A Cause for Concern
Malcolm Yarnell
Jeff Noblit

11/27/07 - The Atonement: Its Design, Nature and Extent
David Nelson
Sam Waldron

11/27/07 - Theological Stereotypes: Let's Be Fair and Honest with Each Other
Charles Lawless
Nathan Finn

11/27/07 - Election and Calling: A Biblical/Theological Study
Ken Keathley
Greg Welty

11/28/07 - Panel Discussion moderated by Daniel Akin, with Nathan Finn, David Nelson, Tom Ascol, Ken Keathley, Malcolm Yarnell, and Greg Welty
Part 1
Part 2

11/28/07 - Conclusion
Ed Stetzer

11/28/07 - Working Together to Make Christ Known
Tom Ascol
Daniel Akin

Disclaimer:
Links in this article are provided solely for information purposes,
and do not in any way imply full and complete endorsement.