Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Calvinist Crossing

  • Wicked Contamination of the Word
    A challenging reminder from Calvin's in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Commentary on Romans.

  • The Calvin 500 Blog
    Promising new blog from Beeke and friends in anticipation of the quincentenary of Calvin’s birth.

  • Edwards, Cross-Centeredness, and Application
    Edwards, we love him! "Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for his free and glorious grace in redeeming you; and if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is."

  • Individualism's Not the Problem--Community's Not the Solution
    Perceptive and insightful remarks on an over-emphasis in much contemporary evangelism.
  • Thursday, July 10, 2008

    Calvinist Crossing

    Happy Birthday, John Calvin!
  • The Glory of Preaching the Bible
    "Thank you, John Calvin, for believing in the majesty of the word and for demonstrating by your life the glory of preaching the Bible."

  • John Calvin (1509-1564)
    "Why do Calvin’s massive works live on? Charles Spurgeon wrote: 'Calvin is a tree whose "leaf also shall not wither;" whatever he has written lives on, and is never out of date, because he expounded the word without bias or partiality.'"

  • If You Can Be Godly and Wrong, Does Truth Matter?
    "Since there are some Arminians who are more godly than some Calvinists and some Calvinists who are more godly than some Arminians, what is the correlation between true knowledge of God and godliness?"

  • Quick and Dirty Calvinism
    Phil brings some of his earlier posts back into the light... "Yes, Calvinism is virile; it's relentless when it comes to truth; and it's not always easy to swallow. But it is full of truths that should humble us and fill us with compassion rather than swagger and conceit. The best Calvinism has always been fervently evangelistic, large-hearted, benevolent, merciful, and forgiving. After all, that's what the doctrines of grace are supposed to be all about."

  • The Will to Debate
    "The issues at the heart of the Calvinist-Arminian controversy are intimately related to the Gospel. The controversy deals with the nature of God's sovereignty and human free will, the impact of sin upon human beings, the meaning of the atonement, the definition and power of God's grace, the possibility of assurance, and much more. Clearly, such doctrines lie at the heart of the Christian faith."
  • Monday, July 7, 2008

    Boycott the Olympics

    For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward (Heb 10:34-35).

    In previous posts we have explained how suffering for the Gospel is normal Christianity and encouraged remembering the persecuted church as though suffering with them. Well, now we have a small opportunity to put some legs to this by boycotting the Olympics in Beijing this year. For further explanation, we include a lightly-edited e-mail from our friend of Romans 10 Fellowship fame:


    I am writing to inform and ask you to seriously consider (1) boycotting the Olympic games in China, and (2) informing/educating others and even writing your congressman to express disapproval.

    Did you know China was turned down in 2000 for its Olympic bid because of human rights violations? What about now, in 2008 when China has not improved?

    First of all, if you are a Christian, you probably know that China has been persecuting Christians for a long time (see Persecution.com). I'm not suggesting everyone stop buying Chinese products because then we end up hurting normal civilians just like ourselves who happen to live in China. However, the Olympic games bring a lot of media attention, a lot of money to a corrupt government, and create an atmosphere and attitude toward China from the rest of the world that China is an okay country, a great place for tourism, etc.

    Maybe you are an athlete or you know an athlete that will be watching (and thus supporting) or maybe even playing in the Olympic games. Please confront them with these facts and exhort them to consider boycotting and thus taking a stand against China so the world can see and reprimand China. Chinese officials cannot keep making the world believe they are a civilized country. Eyes are on North Korea but they should not be off China. No doubt the Chinese economy will enjoy a boost during and after the Olympics due to travel and tourism. Please connect with others you were thinking of watching the Olympics with and decide to do something more effective with that time. Hopefully, one of you reading this will be in the Olympics and will decide to not play so that the basic human rights of the people of China might prevail.

    China is one of the worst human rights violators in the world and this would not be the first Olympics to be boycotted for similar reasons.

    See Amnesty International for updates and their 2007 report on China.

    I'm not talking about a "right" to housing, education and those things that are nice to have. I'm talking about horrible atrocities that China commits against anyone the government deems "against them."

    As Christians we pray for leaders so we can live peaceful and quiet lives, working with our own hands and living godly lives (1 Tim 2:1-2; 1 Thess 4:11-12). However, we also have freedom of speech in our country and tremendous impact because of our influence (and our pocketbooks).

    I think the most impacting thing would be to send this message as far and wide as possible and hopefully it will reach an Olympic athlete who will definitely get coverage if they don't participate... remember Eric Liddell?

    From forced abortions to no religious freedom to funding the Government of Sudan's genocide in Darfur....please consider not only not supporting the Olympics in China, but writing your congressman/woman, writing your friend who is an athlete either in or supporting the Olympics and ask them to reconsider.

    For further information see:
  • Human Rights Torch Relay
  • Leading Chinese Lawyer Urges Boycott
  • House Lawmakers Urge Bush to Boycott Olympics
  • China: Lhasa Torch Relay Tarnishes Olympic Movement
  • Tuesday, July 1, 2008

    Calvinist Crossing

  • Sovereign Grace in Proverbs
    Careful exegesis and reflection indicate that Solomon was a Calvinist too!

  • What is 9Marks?
    The guys in D.C. have a new video that we thought was worth noting. "Churches that reflect the character of God." Simple. Profound. True.

  • Standing Firm
    "When the truth of the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed, somebody is going to get beaten up or thrown in prison... The church must again realize that our strength for standing firm and for daily faith and obedience depends just as much on 'the grace that is in Christ Jesus' as our initial salvation did."

  • Is Google Making Us Stupid?
    Reminder from JT that your reading of The Prostrate Calvinist should not replace reading the man himself.