2020: We Can All Understand!

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  2020 Version of Things

Here's hoping 2021 is better!

[Update: And now here's the new one for 2021.  That didn't take long.  But I'm glad to see we're trying to laugh about it.]


[And another update from February 15, 2021: I am adding this note here because I don't know where else to put it.  I just wanted to share this story which I believe confirms my idea that our online devices are indeed listening to us all the time, even when we don't know it.  Our online service is used for our few tablets, phones, and laptops, but we don't have smart TV's or one of those always-on units that listens and responds when you ask it questions.  Well, yesterday we had some friends over, and we got to talking about the movie "Return to Oz" from 1985, about how creepy it was.  We talked about it for just a couple minutes, maybe 2-3.  Well, a couple hours after they left, I turned on a tablet, looked at the home "news page" (through the search engine that starts with "goo" and ends with "gle") and - lo an behold! - there was an article about why Return to Oz wasn't a bad movie.  I think there's NO WAY on earth that could be a coincidence, not when that's such an old, obscure movie.  I think "they" are listening.  Always listening.  Even when we don't know it and didn't set it up that way.  Creepy and disturbing!]

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

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

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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 ...
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Merry Christmas 2024!

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Merry Christmas early, everyone!   Enjoy these two great Christmas songs:  Hallelujah Christmas   (by  Cloverton )   and   Little Drummer Boy   (My favorite!  By  For King and Country ) "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the LORD." Luke 2:11 "For God so loved  the world that he gave  his one and only Son,  that whoever believes  in him shall not perish but have eternal life."    John 3:16 "... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."   Romans 10:9, 13 [Yes, this is a repeat of the same Christmas post I've published before.  But you really can't do better than these two Christmas songs!]
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Why Is It So Hard For Calvinists To Get Free From Calvinism?

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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...
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Alana L.: 2e (sufficient/efficient)

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This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    Point #2:   E.  Alana then pointed out how Calvinists say that Jesus's work on the cross was "sufficient for all of humanity, but it's not efficient [for all]."   It's only "efficient" for some, for the elect. I love it when she said this about "sufficient and efficient": "Okay, huh, new words, not in Scripture."  Priceless!   I think these bogus terms - which are  not  in the Bible - are merely a way for Calvinists to sound like they're saying one thing when they really mean another, to sound like they're saying Jesus died for all when they're really not.  They know that  if they outright said Jesus didn't die for all, it would contradict certain verses and set off people's alarm bells - and so they speak on multiple levels to obscure what they're teaching, to buy them time to slowly, strategically m...
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Hardest Spiritual Lesson #4: Thankfulness

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[Okay, another one finally from the "hardest spiritual lessons" series.  And Happy New Year!  Have a blessed 2025!] Being Truly, Humbly, Actively Thankful Luke 17:15-18:     “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.    He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.    Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed?    Where are the other nine?    Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’” Ten men were healed.    Only one came back to thank Jesus. Did the other nine say in their hearts, “Oh, I’m sure He knows I am thankful.    I don’t have to actually go find Him and say it out loud.    Besides, I’m too busy enjoying the blessing, the healing.    Isn’t that thanks enough?” Did they get so distracted by their joy of being healed that they simply forgot there was a Healer who made it possible? Did the...
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I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!

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So, I'm just wondering, are anyone else's children playing the song "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" at unexpected, random times throughout the day for the past week, simply so that it gets stuck in your head and you can't stop singing it the rest of the day? No? I didn't think so. (Go ahead and take the challenge: Listen to this song once and see if you don't sing it the rest of the day, too.  That little, warbly, chipmunk voice rattling around in your brain.  And yeah, I know, this is a cruel and inhumane challenge.  I'm sorry!  But if I gotta suffer, I'm takin' you all down with me!😏)
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My Kind of Jesus!

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T hese songs show the kind of Jesus I serve!  Why I love Him so much!   He loves all people with a saving love.  He died for all people so that anyone who wants eternal life can find it.  He is reaching out His hand to all people, asking them to grab onto Him, to let Him love them and heal them and save them!  This is my Jesus!  My God!  My Lord and Savior!   And I will continue to post and repost these songs because they are just so powerful!  So hopeful and truth-filled. Oh, What Love! by The City Harmonic Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle I AM! by Crowder Hallelujah Christmas   by Cloverton My Jesus by Todd Agnew Secret Ambition by Michael W. Smith Confession (Agnus Dei) by The City Harmonic Fell Apart by The City Harmonic By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North Worn by Tenth Avenue North  (Can anyone else understand the feeling of being tired just from ...
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She hit the nail on the head! Amen, come, Lord Jesus!

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A neighbor just sent this link to me , a video clip (just a minute long) from a woman sharing how she is just done with everything, how she's on autopilot and just wants Jesus to come back again. I absolutely get everything she said and have felt the same way for several years now. Can anyone else relate? Here's a transcript of what she said (I think she voiced what a lot of us have been feeling, like we've been treading water, just trying to get by until the end):  "Does anybody else just ... I'm just, like, checked out of this planet.  I told God today, like, I'm ready.  I've been ready, but I'm like  ready ready.  I don't feel like there's anything that I care about anymore.  I just want to go home.  You know, I just want to be done.   I don't want to battle all of the little battles anymore.  I don't want to pay my taxes anymore - because I know where the money's going.  I don't want to go to the grocery store and spend $40...
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On Spurgeon's "Calvinism is the gospel"

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In the comment section of the Soteriology 101 post   "Calvinism Obscures the Simple Gospel" , Jeff left this comment, sharing an article that had the famous sermon from Calvinist Charles Spurgeon: Jeff writes:   “Charles Spurgeon: “Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.”   JULY 4, 2014 / DREW MERY If there is any doubt in anyone’s mind as to whether or not the so-called “Prince of preachers” was a Calvinist, let the following quotation, taken from his sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 (“Christ Crucified”), settle it in your minds–Spurgeon was most definitely a Calvinist. "And I have my own private opinion, that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism.  I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly.  It is a nickname to call it Calvinism.  Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.  I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by fai...
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A Few "End Times" And "Christian News" Links

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There are a few "end times" and "Christian news" sites that I like to check up on now and then.   When it comes to the "End Times," I mainly prefer sites that give me headlines about what's going on around the world that may be related to the end times, such as major earthquake and volcanic activity, political and international conflicts, Israel news, etc.   I don't care much for the sites that are sensationalized - that make huge deals out of every tiny thing and that try to fit every little cosmic or world event into a Bible verse as some sort of "proof" that the End Times are here.  I'd rather read the normal news stories for myself and get an overall picture of how close we seem to be getting to the end. Of course, no matter how close we think we are to the end, it won't happen until God wants it to happen.  All we can do is wait for Him and live the way He wants us to, in anticipation of standing before Him someday.  An...
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