Merry Christmas, and God bless you all!

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Merry Christmas, Everyone!  God bless you today and in 2024.

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


Most Popular Posts of the Week:

"But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!"

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  If you point out to Calvinists that Calvinism's view of sovereignty - that God fore-ordains and orchestrates everything that happens and we had no ability to do anything differently - makes God the cause (and truly the   only  voluntary cause) of all sin and evil, they'll probably respond with something like "That's not what we're saying.  You're putting words in our mouths.  And you don't understand Calvinism."   When they do that, show them a few of these quotes -  Ca lvinists' own words  about their beliefs of God's sovereignty and how He preplans, will, ordains, orchestrates, directs (code words for "causes")  everything  that happens.  And then ask them if they still think you're really misunderstanding them.  (Bold emphasis added) 1. R.C. Sproul Jr.  ( Almighty Over All) :   “God  wills  all things that come to pass" [Okay, I'm gonna start off by addressing this one, then I'll get to more quotes.  I think one
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Alana L. on how to recognize (and defeat) Calvinism (series intro)

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Introduction Here's a great new video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    I've been wanting someone to make a video like this for awhile now - to help people recognize Calvinism when they hear it, to help them realize it's a big deal that they should take seriously and research, and to help them know why it's wrong and how it spreads. Those who've studied against Calvinism know how very tricksy it is.  But those who  don't know anything about it, or how to recognize it, or how it takes over, or how it sounds like it's teaching one thing when it's  really  teaching something totally different, or how it twists or misinterprets Scripture... well, they  are sitting ducks, fish in a barrel, who become easy targets for a Calvinist pastor (especially a stealth Calvinist pastor) who slowly and strategically indoctrinates them into this twisted theology, before they ever see it coming.   [Note: I am not judging the hearts of Calvin
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An Open Letter to Christian Churches Doing Yoga

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We haven't set foot in a church for a Sunday service since we left ours in 2019.  We were just so burned out on churches after dealing with the Calvinism that took over ours (and discouraged about how much it's spreading to many churches) that we simply stayed home and watched Tony Evans' sermons online (and we met with another family for Bible study for over a year, until they found a church to attend).   But recently, we decided to check out a church, just to see.  And it was good.  Not perfect, but good.  We're not necessarily looking to make a church home out of it, but we just need a little something right now.  And this was good enough.  But on the way out, I saw a flyer for upcoming events at their church, and one thing they offered was a "Christian Yoga" class.  That, to me, is a huge no-no, something Christians should not engage in.  But they do.  All over the place.  With no sense of it being wrong.   In fact, at our last church, one of the female
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God Set Pharaoh Up

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) If you’ve read the previous posts, you know that I believe that God does not cause us to sin or to be disobedient.   We decide if we want to believe in Him and obey Him or if we want to rebel against Him.   But I read a post recently by a strong Calvinist who believes that God causes people to sin, for His reasons and His glory, such as causing Adam and Eve to eat the fruit and causing Pharaoh to have a hard heart so that he wouldn't release the Israelites.  (Can you guess who wrote it?  Yep, my pastor.  He says that God "ordained" those things, but he really means God "caused" those things.  FYI, when a Calvinist says God "ordained" something, they don't mean He knew it would happen and just allowed it to happen; they mean He preplanned it and caused it to happen.  Big difference!)    I don’t agree.   I do not think God causes (“forces”) people to sin, to rebel, to resist Him
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Be Wary Of The Christian Post

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(Written 6/15/18)  Occasionally, I check in with the Christian Post to see what's going on in the world that specifically relates to Christians.  And generally, I've never really had any red flags go up about this website ... until now. A recent article by Stoyan Zaimov, with a title that starts "Christian Lesbian rock star ..." goes on to share this woman's story about being assaulted by a male priest when she was young.   However, I don't think the reason for this article is to talk about the abuse she suffered and her courage in speaking up.  I think this is a deliberate attempt to affirm Christian homosexuality.  The very fact that they put "Christian" and "lesbian" in the title makes it sound like it's indeed possible to be a Christian and a practicing homosexual who sees no need to change. And it seems to me that this article paints her in a heroic light, as though she is in the right and should be applauded and e
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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 as a Calvinist, I
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I Highly Recommend Soteriology 101

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If you want to know what Calvinism is and what's wrong with it, I highly recommend this blog - Soteriology 101 - written by a former 5-point Calvinist who is now speaking out against Calvinism. And I particularly recommend reading the comments section of each post if you really want to see how Calvinists think (and if you want to read some horrible quotes from Calvinist authors and theologians).   Dr. Flowers allows Calvinists, non-Calvinists, and anti-Calvinist to add comments to the comment section.  And these people are very educated and thoughtful.  All of them.  Calvinists, non-Calvinists, and anti-Calvinists alike.  So you get a really interesting, thoughtful, complex, eye-opening look at Calvinism.  And at Calvinist logic nonlogic in action.   When you read the comments by the Calvinist commenters (you can clearly identify them after awhile), you can see how they spin things, reword things, redefine things, ignore certain truths and logic, and take Bible verses o
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"But predestination!" (16B: sin, evil, suffering)

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In this series, I'm examining some things that Calvinists (especially my ex-pastor) say about predestination.   Here's the whole series on my other blog:  the pastor's sermons  ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments  1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)   and  16A (God's Will, babies)  and  16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and  17 (double-speak and the gospel) . Sixteen B (I broke #16 up into two halves, so picking up where we left off in the last post...) And now, moving on from the bulk of my comments to the bulk of the Calvinist quotes, showing you Calvinism in its full glory.  (And you thought you were almost done, that you already read the bulk of the Calvinist quotes.  Oh, no, we're just getting started.) Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and
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"The Last Goodbye" - A song for us Hobbits

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(a post from my other blog , from March 28, 2022) There's a song at the end of  The Battle of the Five Armies  (from the Hobbit trilogy) that's become one of my favorite songs.  I feel this song, especially the line about "Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen..."  That's kinda been my last several years: many sorrows I have seen.   Many trials.  Many heartbreaks.  (Everyone who lives long enough will have many of these.) Most recently, I had the awful experience of being on the witness stand for three hours, giving testimony against my mom.  And after nearly a week of trial, she was found guilty of ... well, of something really bad.  (She insists she didn't do it, but we think otherwise.  It's not exactly like the prosecution says, but close enough.)  And now she will spend her life in prison.   Many sorrows I have seen. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.  The last memory I have of her could very well be her sitting in the courtr
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Sermons by Tony Evans

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Taking a break between the "end times" stuff and the upcoming "predestination" stuff: (I recently fixed the broken links as well as I could, had to switch some out for others) Tony Evans is my all-time favorite pastor.  He always gives messages that convict, challenge, and comfort.  Here are some sermons that I have listened to or am going to listen to.  For more, simply go to his website by  clicking here .  There are so many great ones to choose from. You can't go wrong with any video of his.  I found him to be the most biblically-accurate preacher (especially as I researched Calvinism and found out how wrong it is), who is also great at helping us practically apply God's truths to life. Reversing Anxiety Consequences Keeping the faith when life gets hard Trusting God in a storm How to have strength in your struggles How to overcome your worry How to Get Your Prayers Answered Trusting The God You Believe In God knows what He is doing How the enemy tries
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