Calvinistic Cartoons: Dogmatism

AW Tozer is one of the greatest preachers of the 20th Century. I appreciate Eddie Eddings for posting this quote. I agree with Tozer. He isn't saying to go one believing false hood, just to follow the Word of God where ever God leads us.


Calvinistic Cartoons: Dogmatism

None Good But One

You may have noticed Ryan Anderson challenging the Bible on its teaching that none are good and all have gone astray and deserving hell. You can read his feeble attempt in the comments of my post: FacePalm of the Day #35 - Debunking Christianity: The Free Will Fumble: Why Christians Treat it Just Like They do With Unanswered Prayer. One of his arguments is that we can see unborn-again people acting morally and doing morally good things. Ryan misses a big point. The Bible is not saying that unregenerate people do no good things. The Bible says no one is good. That is a difference. Just because a person does a good thing here-and-there does not make that person good. He accused me of changing the definition of "good" after several back-and-forth comments where he asserted that "good" is what he says it is because he says morality is relative. Interesting that he says he can define "good" as he sees fit but then denies me the same "right". However, I'm not making up my own definition I'm using the definition in the Bible. I will take two examples: from the Bible.

• Matthew 19:17 KJV

  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
  Read Matthew 19 | View in parallel | Compare Translations| Interlinear view

• Mark 10:18 KJV

  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
  Read Mark 10 | View in parallel | Compare Translations| Interlinear view

• Luke 18:19 KJV

  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
  Read Luke 18 | View in parallel | Compare Translations| Interlinear view

The first three examples are taken from a single story. A rich young man came to Jesus and addressed him as "Good Teacher:" Jesus answered the man by calling attention to what he called Jesus. Notice that Jesus does not say "Don't call me 'good'". Instead he says, "None is good but God". By calling Jesus good in the sense that God is good, and Jesus not denying that, Jesus showed who He is! Next point: would anyone really try to argue that Jesus is defining "good" the way Ryan and most people do? Or is Jesus pointing to being holy and pure and never making mistakes or doing the wrong thing? The latter is the way I have been using the word "good". Jesus was not the only one who used the word this way.

Paul is my second example.

• Romans 3:12 KJV

  They are all gone out of the way , they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one .
  Read Romans 3 | View in parallel | Compare Translations| Interlinear view

WE can see how Paul uses "good" and interesting enough he quotes Isaiah. Again is anyone really willing to say that Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, and all the rest of the Bible is suggesting that sinners do good things? I hope not. The context is "good" according to God's ultimate objective standard. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 7:11 which says:

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Read in contextRead Matthew 7View in parallelInterlinear viewCompare Translations

So can evil people do good things? According to the Bible: Yup. The same word ajgaqovß tranlated "good" is found in all the passages I referenced. Transliterated to English the word is "Agathos". So Ryan's objection has no traction.  The bottom line is that no human being is capable of standing before the Holy God in his/her own righteousness because apart from Jesus Christ we have no righteousness worthy for comparison. Without Jesus,.we deserve hell. Jesus is our propitiation and our only hope. There is only one way to God and Jesus is it.

ID.Plus: 18 Peer Reviewed Scientific Papers that Support Intelligent Design Theory

Who says that there are no peer-reviewed scientific papers about Intelligent Design? Peter S. Williams lists 18 of them from the past 10 years and links to more!

ID.Plus: 18 Peer Reviewed Scientific Papers that Support Intelligent Design Theory

Blogger Buzz: Discover Your Blog's Community with OneTrueFan

OneTrueFan has been added to my blog. I added because I would love to be able to get more feedback from people who visit and read my blog. I appreciate everyone who stops by even those who disagree with me and the things I believe. This is why I have an open policy for those who comment. You can say anything you want and interact as you see fit. I've implemented OneTrue fan because it allows even more reader interaction. IF you look at the bottom of the browser as you scroll down you'll see a window that allows people to join the service for free and share the links that they have shared from the blog.

Readers earn points for coming to your site each day, reading content, sharing links and driving traffic to your site. The ten readers with the most points show up in a leaderboard, but those points only last for 14 days. Readers need to keep coming back because fanship is an ongoing process.

I think what I would like to do sometime in 2011 is offer prizes to readers in the reader board. I'll make an announcement when I know more information. Please feel free to follow the link below to learn more about the OneTrueFan service. Maybe you might like to add the service to your own blog(s).


Blogger Buzz: Discover Your Blog's Community with OneTrueFan

Would It Have Been Right for a German Christian to Assassinate Hitler? (And an update on the attempt to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”) : Line of Fire

On his Wednesday (12-15-2010) Broadcast, Dr. Michael Brown tackled an interesting philosophical question with weighty moral and theological implications:

Would It Have Been Right for a German Christian to Assassinate Hitler? (And an update on the attempt to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”)

Er...I meant two subjects!

Would It Have Been Right for a German Christian to Assassinate Hitler? (And an update on the attempt to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”) : Line of Fire

Saddleback's Annual Apologetics Weekend: Who is Jesus? - Apologetics 315

Brian Auten has posted links to lectures given at Saddleback Church's Annual Apologetics Weekend on the topic "Who Is Jesus?". There are some great teachers in the series:

• Chris Wright
• Scott McKnight
• Peter Kreeft
• Greg Koukl
• Philipp Yancey

Follow the links Apologetics 315 for video and audio!

Saddleback's Annual Apologetics Weekend: Who is Jesus? - Apologetics 315

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