Memorial Weekend Musings

This Week in Calvinism - May 27, 2011

• With Reformer John Knox long-forgotten, the Church of Scotland is now accepting gay clergy.
  
  
• Adrian Warnock asks, "Are you an Arminian on your knees and a Calvinist on your feet?"
  
  
• Peter Kirk answers, "Arminians are not deists; we believe prayer works."
  
  
• Spurgeon on eloquence in preaching.


• John Piper interviews Rick Warren on doctrine.
  
  
• Next week you can begin reading J. Gresham Machen's book Christianity and Liberalism with Tim Challies. Download the book in PDF or audio format for free here.
  

Christian Warmongering at Its Worst

When you fail to draw a distinction between the city of man and the city of God, you end up sounding like this:

If America is really serious about combating worldwide Islamic terrorism and the increasing reports of Christian genocide among the 44 Muslim nations, then let us take up the battle cry of Ann Coulter and the Muslim author who converted to Christianity and train our military not only to kill and destroy our enemies but to convert them to Christianity. ...

... My one revision of Coulter is not that we should invade their countries: We must invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. PC (perversity correctness) means keeping Christianity, America and the West on the road to dhimmitude.

Six million Muslims convert to Christianity per year. Thank God Christian missionaries are still devoted to Christ's mandate: Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Would to God that our military would join Christ's battle cry and honor this verse of the Marines' Hymn:

First to fight for right and freedom [of religion]
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Semper Fi!

Would to God that American Christians would return to the belief that the kingdom of God is advanced by the power of the Gospel, not by the power of the gun.

Even Atheists Should Think Homosexuality is Morally Wrong

I believe that the atheistic worldview has no moral foundation upon which to make distinctions between right and wrong. The only way atheists can make a moral judgment is if they borrow from the Christian worldview, which adheres to moral absolutes. Still, for the purpose of this post, let's assume that it's possible for atheists to remain consistent in their worldview.

Atheists rely on a naturalistic, pragmatic morality that considers "right" to be that which is beneficial for humanity as a whole. Likewise, that which is detrimental to humanity is deemed "wrong". For example, an atheist may judge murder to be wrong on the basis that if everyone ran around killing each other, the human race would become extinct. The atheist can comfortably conclude, then, that it is good not to murder his fellow human being.

So what about the issue of homosexuality? Why do so many atheists seem to be such strong supporters of gay rights? I would think that the atheist, even from a naturalistic perspective, has no choice but to conclude that homosexuality is morally wrong. The reason is simple: If everyone were gay, procreation would cease, thereby dooming the human race to extinction.

(By the way, the same argument works for abortion, as I once pointed out to a pro-choice atheist.)

George Takei on Tennessee's "Don't Say Gay" Bill

One question: When will the pedophiles rise up and demand that teachers discuss "intergenerational intimacy" in the classroom?

In Case of Rapture...

This Week in Calvinism - May 20, 2011

• Arminian Roger Olson rejects the notion that "God always does the wisest thing."
  
  
• C. Michael Patton responds.
  
  
• Catholic Joe Heschmeyer wrongly states the Calvinist position on limited atonement, saying that "no amount of faith or virtue could ever save" those for whom Christ did not die. Actually, Calvinists would say that the gift of faith is only given to those for whom Christ died.
  
  
• An interesting article in the Huffington Post on "green Calvinism." The author concludes that, with closer examination, "we begin to see that Reformed Christians who seem so prudish and proper were actually a people of passionate desire. Calvinist believers who seem so focused on divine transcendence were closet nature mystics exulting in God's beauty everywhere."
  
  
• Dan Phillips lists 17 ways in which cult leader Harold Camping glorifies God.

Why Do Atheists Care Whether or Not God is Moral?

A favorite tactic of atheists is to call attention to the "immoral" commands of God in the Old Testament to destroy entire nations and to impose capital punishment for seemingly victimless crimes. Appealing to some vague, universal moral law (one they can't account for in their worldview), they say, "Murder is wrong, so God is wrong for ordering the murder of innocent men, women, and children."

Of course, their concept of morality leaves no room for the consideration that, as the Creator of the universe, God has every right to do as he pleases with his creation. There is no room for the possibility that he is within his rights as Divine Judge and Law-Giver to punish sinful creatures who break his laws. Those "victims" of God's wrath the atheists deem "innocent" aren't innocent at all in the eyes of an infinitely holy and just God.

And yet atheists can't seem to resist condemning God for behaving in an immoral manner. The idea, I suppose, is to shame Christians into seeing their own hypocrisy reflected in the God they worship.

What I find interesting is just how much time and effort atheists spend criticizing the God of the Bible. You don't see Christians wasting their time condemning Zeus for his violent temper and his extramarital affairs. Why, then, do atheists care at all about the immoral actions of a God they believe doesn't exist?

This Week in Calvinism - May 13, 2011

• Calvinism and women.
  
  
• What many Arminians find so reprehensible in Calvinism.
  
  
• What is prayer? John Piper answers.
  
  
• Do we have free will? Geoff Ashley explains, "Fallen creatures are free to do what they want. All they want is sin."
  
  
• Reading Classics Together, with Tim Challies. Next up: Christianity and Liberalism, by J. Gresham Machen.

This Week in Calvinism - May 6, 2011

• As a Christian I should pursue ongoing repentance as a child of the King, not as an orphan.
  
  
• A Calvinist rant against other Calvinists.
  
  
• Tim Challies brings back his popular "Reading Classics Together."
  
  
• Phil Johnson writes, "Authentic worship is concerned with truth, not bare passion."
  
  
• I am an atheist.