Little Drummer Boy #2

-
This is a very different version than Little Drummer Boy #1, but it's very beautiful.  Serene. 

Little Drummer Boy #2 by Lauren Daigle

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

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

A Coronavirus "Plandemic"? A 26-minute video you need to see

-
Image
Everyone should watch this 26-minute video: Plandemic Part 1 by Dr. Mikovits .  (FYI: I watched this video yesterday on a different YouTube link.  It had something like a million views.  And it's already been removed today.  Big surprise!  This is why I watched it right away and wrote up a short summary of my thoughts on it.  Because I figured it would be silenced!  So watch it soon, before this is removed too.) A friend found it yesterday and shared it with me.   While it’s scary stuff, it didn’t shock me because it coincides with what I’ve already thought about this whole virus situation, among other things: ... That there’s something fishy about it and it’s not natural … ... That there are unhealthy and dangerous connections between Bill Gates and Dr. Fauci and government health agencies (CDC, FDA, WHO, etc.), among others … ... That there are shady coronavirus reporting practices in the hospitals, such as financial incentives for doctors ...
Read more

Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

-
It's so sad to hear about all the celebrities who have recently committed suicide (or about anyone who has committed suicide, for that matter).  My heart breaks for them, for the pain they went through, and for the ones who love them, for the pain they are now going through.  It is truly a tragedy. To anyone who is hurting really badly, who is struggling with overwhelming anxiety or depression, who is considering taking their own lives ... I dedicate this post.  Please, take some time to look through some of the links here.  This is a round-up of some on-line resources or posts about dealing with anxiety or depression, particularly as a Christian. But first: Quick tips for help: If you are desperate for some immediate help and don't want to look through the links I have below, try some of these (or if it's really bad and you think you might hurt yourself, call 911 or go to the emergency room): 1.   Put on a worship song right now.  Or sin...
Read more

God's Greatest Priority (and why there's a hell)

-
Image
Calvinists believe that God's greatest priority - His primary reason for making people - is to get more glory for Himself, and that He gets it through ordaining sin and predestining people to hell.  They think that this is why people are in hell: for God's glory, that He gets glory when He shows off His justice by punishing sin and evil.  And so He needed sin and evil and non-elect people to punish or else He couldn't fully display all His attributes to get praise and glory for them.   [But remember that - in Calvinism - people don't actually get to choose whether or not they want to believe in Jesus.  God decides for them.  He decides who won't believe and prevents them from being able to believe, and then He punishes them for not believing, even though they never had the chance or ability to believe, by God's decree.  This is a  far different  kind of "justice" than punishing people who actually deserve it, who had a choice.  In fact, ...
Read more

Calvinism's Heart-Breaking Destruction

-
Wanna see some of the real-life destruction that Calvinism does to hearts, souls, and faith?   Here are some comments (warning: bad language ahead) from a Reddit post called  "Calvinism is disgusting" , showing how people - who don't realize that Calvinism is NOT biblical - have been hurt by Calvinism and have ended up rejecting God altogether instead of just rejecting Calvinism.  Sadly, it's because they don't know that there's a  big difference  between the God of the Bible and the god of Calvinism, between the Bible's hope-filled gospel and Calvinism's sick, hopeless, twisted half-gospel. The reddit post starts out with this comment (I added punctuation to make it easier to read):  "I had a discussion with a Calvinist last night and it's more gross than I thought.  After questioning him for over an hour, it basically boiled down to the dude admitting that god predestined innocent children to a life of suffering and then hell, and that same ...
Read more

My Problem With Calvinism Is Not Really About Free-Will, But It's About ...

-
Image
  I was thinking last night about how Calvinists think that free-will is the big reason other people don't want to believe in Calvinism, as in "Well, you don't like the idea of not being in control of your own choices, and so that's why you won't accept Calvinism."   They use this to  shame anti-Calvinists, such as when my Calvi-pastor at our ex-church would say these things in sermons: "Most Americans have a hard time accepting God's sovereignty [a Calvinist's definition of it!].  They don't like the idea of someone being in authority over them.  They like to think they are in control of themselves, self-sufficient, standing on their own two feet.  And so they won't humble themselves before Him.  They  resist the idea of God being in control over them, of His sovereignty, because they like their free-will too much." But you know what? It's not about free-will.   My biggest grievance against Calvinism is not about a desire to have...
Read more

Some Current Heretical Teachings

-
Some Current Heretical Teachings in Many Christian Churches (repost): I want to take a brief moment to introduce some of the current heretical teachings that are coming from “Christian” churches nowadays, and possible responses to them.   This is just a taste of the heresies that are out there. 1.   “There was no virgin birth.   ‘Virgin’ meant she was a young woman or that she got pregnant the first time she had intercourse.   So Jesus wasn’t really God.” If they can destroy the idea of the virgin birth, they can deny the deity of Jesus Christ.   They can make Him into just a man, just another good teacher you can choose to follow if you want to.              But what about Matthew 1:18 , which says that Mary and Joseph hadn’t “come together” yet?   They didn’t have intercourse, and yet she was found to be with child.   But if it wasn’t through intercourse with Joseph and it wasn’t supernatural, then you w...
Read more

How Much Power Do Witches Have? (repost)

-
There have been articles coming out recently about a rise in witchcraft in America.  One article says that witchcraft is growing astronomically and that witches now outnumber Presbyterians in the United States.  And another article (along with this one ) says that witches gathered the other day to hex Brett Kavanaugh, to take back the country, and to support abortion rights.  And they've been trying to hex President Trump, too, according to other articles.  And recently, Salem unveiled the largest Ouija Board ever, in the hopes of attracting the largest ghost ever.  (I wouldn't be surprised if they get the results they want.  Only it won't be "ghosts.") This makes me wonder ... How much power do witches really have? Answer:  I don't know. I don't know, and I'm not about to google it because I can only imagine what kind of sites that would dredge up. But I will say this:  Witchcraft is about trying to control the spirit world - demon...
Read more

This One's For You! (A Christmas Sermon)

-
Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.) "Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)" (Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel) Merry Christmas, Everyone! [FYI: I've written before about how I disagree with woman being head pastors.  And it seems that, at Willow, the head pastor is a man but there are several teaching pastors under him, including women.  To me, that's a gray area.  And I'm not sure yet what I think of it.  But  since it doesn't break my hardline, definitive "no woman head pastor" rule , I've decided to ...
Read more

Calvin's Contradictions (simplified)

-
  In the comment section of a Soteriology 101 post -  Flowers Man Bad  - someone (Simon Peter) was defending John Calvin, quoting him as saying  "the gate of salvation is open to all," making it sound like he thought Calvin really taught that salvation is truly available for all and possible for all.   I replied that Calvin contradicts himself in his writing, and so I wouldn't believe what he said in one place because he would contradict it or qualify it or add another layer to it in another place, changing what he originally said.   Simon Peter replied: " A sign of being a great scholar is the ability to change one’s mind and improve one’s system of thought. Calvin had that ability, as did Luther and many other great theologians.  In this light I would ask you to demonstrate the alleged contradictions from Calvin’s writings?" I'm guessing he thought that I made a baseless, ignorant comment, that I didn't have anything to back me up. And so I...
Read more