Jesus Was Just A Good Teacher?

-
What if you're wrong about Jesus? 

Seriously ... what if?
(click on it)

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Updated: Alana L. 5R (no freedom needed)

-
Image
Point #5 still (updated) :   R:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     [A continuation of the last post on  "robots" , with more quotes to show what I mean.]   Not only do Calvinists believe that God - in His "sovereignty" - predetermines/orchestrates our sins but then punishes us for sinning, but they also believe (and this is downright crazy to me) that true human freedom is  not even a necessary condition  for accountability and responsibility.  They  don't think that  we need to have the real ability to make real free decisions among real options in order for God to hold us truly responsible for what we do.   But they think that we can be held accountable for sin simply because we had  the desire to disobey God, because we did what we "wanted" to do - even though, in Calvinism, God determined we'd want to do it.    Reformed commenter  Tiny-Development3598  said this in a...
Read more

Anti-Calvinism Links

-
This is the last half of the post "What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views."   But I put it here in its own post so that it's easier to find. These are some links to posts which are against Calvinism, the belief that the Bible teaches God has predetermined from the beginning of time who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  It's no secret from my writing that I strongly disagree with this view.  I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God offers us all salvation, that Jesus's death paid for everyone's sins, and that we have to decide if we will accept Him or reject Him.  And here is some of what others have to say about Calvinism: (FYI, I haven't read everything in all of these yet and I don't necessarily agree with every point they make, but I needed to link to them before I lost them online.  And for the record, I came to my belief about what the Bible says by reading the Bible, not extra-biblical books or articles...
Read more

#2: Embracing Hope, Jan. 2016 (repost)

-
[Reposted from my other blog, from January 2016.  This comes shortly after the "Wrestling With God" post, the summer when I found myself utterly discouraged by life, by gardening.  When it seemed like one thing after the next just kept going wrong.  This was my call to hope again.   Update:   I mentioned in the last post that my mom is currently trying to drink herself to death.  I got a call last night that she was found unconscious at a friend's house after drinking since 10 a.m. that morning and taking a bunch of Librium.  They called me last night to tell me that she was in the hospital with a blood alcohol level of 375, unconscious, and not breathing on her own.  (A couple days ago, she went in with level of 400.)  They had to put tubes in her lungs to keep her alive.  It's the fourth time, they said, that the ambulance was called on her in about a week.  I tell ya, it seems almost supernatural that she hasn't died yet....
Read more

A Crash Course in Calvinism (A Letter to Pastors)

-
  We recently started attending a new church and are enjoying it enough.  But having come from a church that was hijacked by Calvinism, I am highly alert for any whiff of it in this one.  (It's kinda sad when words like "sovereign" and "grace" make you wince.)  We haven't really noticed any Calvinism in this one, but the pastors do quote from and praise Calvinist theologians.  Sure, they're good quotes, but it makes me nervous.  I doubt they know what Calvinism  really  teaches or how easily it traps people.  And so being someone who can't just ignore it, I decided to write them a letter, to make sure they realize what they're dabbling with.   (If I don't warn them, it's on me.  But if I do warn them and they ignore it, it's on them.)  And I figured I'd post that letter here, too, for anyone else who might want to know this stuff or who might want to copy it to share with their own pastors (or family or friends) who dabble...
Read more

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

-
I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
Read more

Jesus Wasn't Always "Nice"

-
            There's a disturbing trend going around, even on "Christian" blogs.  People are using Jesus' name to condone sin.               "Jesus was nice to everyone and never said anything mean to anyone" is being used to silence Christians from speaking up about sin.  It's being used to defend everyone's choices and lifestyles because "Jesus never scolded anyone or judged anyone.  Because He was all about loving others."               Using Jesus' love to support things that Jesus never supported.               Very clever!               Very evil!             Basically, what they're saying is that "being nice like Jesus" means never calling anything "sin" or telling anyone to change their lifestyles or saying anything negative to anyone ever.  That Jesu...
Read more

#1 Wrestling With God, 2015 (repost)

-
[ I wrote this post in August of 2015.  But I am reposting it because I need to read it again.  I guess I need to read it again because life sometimes feels like one big "wrestling with God" match.  Wrestling with faith.  With life.   As I look back on these past several years, I am kinda amazed at how things turn out.  Or ... how they don't, I should say.  How real and raw and messy life can be sometimes.  These next numbered posts are taken from over these last few years, showing the progression of life, of the unexpected, of the "wrestling with God, faith, and life" moments.  This one goes up to August 2015, how beaten up I've felt over the years up till then.  And then comes the post about the hope I had that 2016 would be better.  And then comes 2016 - the worst summer of my life.  A life-changer for me.  And then, well, I'm not sure yet what I am putting after that.  But I'm reposting these because it's fasci...
Read more

Why Is It So Hard For Calvinists To Get Free From Calvinism?

-
This was originally on the end of my post "If Calvinism is true, then God is a liar."   But I think it deserves its own post (I recently updated it a little bit, March 2021): I read something once about how very few people end up freeing themselves from the clutches of Calvinism because of the strong hold it has on people.  I think this is partly because ... 1.   We (I am talking as if I were a Calvinist here) would have to admit that we were misunderstanding Scripture this whole time, and no one wants to admit they could be wrong. 2.   Calvinism appeals to us prideful intellectuals.  (And prideful intellectuals have the greatest aversion to admitting we could be wrong.)  It makes us feel special, like we alone understand the "deeper, hidden meanings of Scripture," while the simple-minded Christians can't understand it.  Calvinism (with all of its contradictions, word play, round-about reasoning, and multiple layers of meaning for verses) gives u...
Read more