A Few Good TobyMac Songs

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Get Back Up Again  (God allows U-Turns!  There's always hope, always forgiveness, always a new day.)

Hold On (The pain won't last forever.  And His mercies are new every morning.) 

Break Open The Sky (Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!)

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Updated: Alana L. 5N (conflations: foreknow vs foreplan)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]  Point #5 still: N:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Foreknow vs Foreplan "Oh," the Calvinist replies, "but God needed Assyria (or anybody, for that matter) to be/do evil for His plans, and so He foreplanned they would be/do evil.  They had no ability to do anything else or to choose to be good because God planned to use their evilness.  And so it had to be that way."   My reply to them: "No, I think God foreplanned to  use  Assyria's self-chosen evilness to discipline Israel, but He did not foreplan them to be/do evil.  Assyria had a choice in who they were and what they did.   And God foreknew they would be/chose evil, and so He found a way to work their evil into His plans...
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Is Our Eternity Decided For Us?

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Since we've been talking about the End Times and heaven and hell, the next logical question might be ... "But do we even have a choice about our eternal 'destinies'?  Do we have the free-will to choose Jesus and heaven, or does God predestine us to heaven or hell?" Maybe this question won't cross the minds of many of you.  But it's one I have studied and thought about a lot ... mostly because we have a pastor who hammers the idea of predestination, acting like anyone who disagrees with him is disagreeing with the Bible and dishonoring God.  Like his view is the only way to read the Bible! He even goes so far as to say things like God wanted people in hell - for His glory.  That He planned Adam and Eve's Fall - for His purposes.  That if we sin, it's because God caused it.  And that everything that happens in our lives is caused by God - even childhood abuse - for His glory and our good, and so we just have to trust Him.   [Oh, my goodness, I c...
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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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Updated: Alana L. 5M (conflations: cause vs. allow)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]    Point #5 still :   M:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     In  5K  and  5L  (links to my other blog), I looked at Calvinism's incorrect belief that "sovereign" necessarily means that God preplans/causes all things.  In these next few posts, I want to further examine their misunderstanding of "sovereign" related to their erroneous conflations of "cause" and "allow"... and "foreknow" and "foreplan"... and "natural evils" and "moral evils"... and their deceptive use of the word "authors."   [There will be some redundancy in here and some review of things I said in the previous parts.  I tried making it shorter and more concise, but...
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Links To Other Anti-Calvinism Posts

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Some of my thoughts and research on Calvinism (Why I believe it's not Scriptural!): Why is Calvinism So Dangerous? If Calvinism is true, then God is a liar! What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views? Letter To Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing In Our Church Acts 13:48: Not As "Predestination" As It Sounds Sovereignty and Free-Will Working Together Anti-Calvinism Memes and Links Why Is It So Hard For Calvinists To Get Free From Calvinism? Can You Lose Your Salvation? Problems in John Calvin's  Institutes of the Christian Religion Are We Only Here For God's Glory? What About God's Love? So Job was a dimwit, huh? "Defend Your Calvinism" Challenge More Anti-Calvinism Memes.  Just for fun! Some of John Calvin's Contradicting Nonsense! How to tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (extended version)  and the  (simplified version) You know what happens when you assume things!  A look at John Calvin...
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"Predestination vs. Free-Will" Overview

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(Part of the "Predestination Vs. Free-Will" series) I was listening to a speaker recently (our "new" pastor that I told you about earlier) who  strongly believes in predestination, that God decides who to save and who to condemn to hell and that He causes everything we do, even our sins, for His glory and purposes. And I . . . well . . . I couldn’t disagree more! Imagine that I walk into your church and say, “I am taking a group of people on a trip with me.   We are leaving sometime soon, and you have to decide which group you’ll be part of: the one that goes or the rest that stay behind.   I have a destination picked out, a way to get there, I’ve already paid the price to take a group with me, and I’m now asking for those who want to go.   It’s up to you if you want to come or be left behind.   But if you do not deliberately choose to come with me, you will be left behind.”   This, in essence, is the way I view the whole “predestin...
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Starting the new school year with Creation vs. Evolution

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I'm not starting this blog up again, but I did want to add this post from my other blog (the one I still occasionally add posts to: Heather's Garden and Home ) because it very much has to do with faith, which is what My Crazy Faith is all about.  I don't know about you, but I could use a little boost to encourage and strengthen my faith, considering what a hopeless mess this world is right now.  So here it is ... If there's one thing I would go back and change if I could when homeschooling my older two children (grown and graduated now), it would be that I would have them watch more great educational videos online, instead of focusing mostly on textbooks.   (And I would let them have more time to pursue something they were passionate about.  I'd rather have a kid who was passionate about something, anything - studying bugs, piano, building, classical literature, writing stories, etc. - than have a kid who did all the boring bookwork but never developed a passion...
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Should "Predestination vs. Free-Will" Matter To Christians?

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) Should it matter to us Christians whether God caused us to become Christians or whether we chose it ourselves?   I mean, how we got to be Christians doesn’t change the responsibility that we have in living out our faith, does it?   Should we bother with trying to figure out this confusing, controversial topic, or should we just let it rest?   And if we should be concerned about it, how should we approach it?
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Turn it up even LOUDER!

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(Just for fun, slipped in between the spiritual warfare posts, and a week earlier than normal.)  You know those songs that you always have to play as loud as possible, and even louder if you could? I've got some of those.  [To name only five, there's  Numb from U2 and  Chlorine,   Downstairs,   Choker , and Jumpsuit from Twenty One Pilots.  I'm addicted to Twenty One Pilots (musical geniuses)!  And so are my husband and sons.]    And the only place I can play them as loud as I want is when I'm driving alone in the car.  That's MY time.  An introvert's dream vacation.  I can play my music as loud as I want and sing along... and there's no one to interrupt or complain.  (But I do worry that I might've butt-dialed someone and that they're listening to me sing loud and proud.) And this reminds me: You parents know what we're supposed to do when kids complain about our music, right? Yeah, that's right: TURN IT UP EVEN LO...
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