This Week in Calvinism - November 25, 2011

• If you want to know the significance of Christianity in American history, study the Great Awakening.
  
  
• Joel Taylor recommends an audio series that exposes the false teachings of Mark Driscoll, John Piper, John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, R. C. Sproul, and others.
  
  
• Dan Corner refutes the "Calvinistic doctrine of infant damnation for the non-elect." Funny, I don't even remember being taught that.
  
  
• A "negative" review of God's Wisdom in Proverbs, a book by Pyromaniac Dan Phillips.
  
  
• Tim Challies has some great Black Friday deals for the discerning reader.

Man fired for not accepting the "mark of the beast"

Well...sort of.

Billy E. Hyatt was recently fired from his job at a plastics factory near Dalton, Georgia. He claims it was because he refused to wear a sticker celebrating the factory being accident-free for 666 days.

It isn't clear whether management required the sticker to be worn on the forehead or on the hand, but Hyatt, a devout Christian (and apparently a devout dispensationalist), didn't want to take any chances. He believed that wearing the sticker would have been accepting the "mark of the beast" described in the book of Revelation, condemning him to hell.

Without getting into the serious implications of dispensational theology (though I think we're seeing one of them here), all of this hassle could have been avoided had Mr. Hyatt simply dropped a hammer on his toe. That would have bought him at least another 665 days.

This Week in Calvinism - November 18, 2011

• Randal Rauser's mistake: A defense of the doctrine of election.
  
  
• Bruce Bauer laments "Calvinism's 'god' of limited sovereignty."
  
  
• So...consistent Calvinists must conclude that all babies go to hell?
  
  
• R. C. Sproul Jr. discusses the topic of where babies go when they die.
  
  
• Michael Horton addresses Roger Olson's ridiculous charge that Calvinism makes God a "moral monster."
  
  
• When people attack Calvinists, it isn't just because they fail to understand our doctrine; they may not even understand their own.

Did God Tell Herman Cain to Run for President?

It seems presidential hopeful Herman Cain is a modern Moses:

Herman Cain returned to his home state for a brief campaign stop Saturday, telling a cheering group of young Republicans in Atlanta that God told him to run for president and that he was "in it to win it."

"I prayed and prayed and prayed. I am a man of faith," Cain told the Young Republican National Federation at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. "I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I have ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses: 'You have got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?' ... Once I made the decision, I did not look back."

So what should I do if God told me not to vote for any candidate who claims to have been told by God to run for president?

This Week in Calvinism - November 11, 2011

• For those wondering why Roger Olson didn't mention J. I. Packer in his book Against Calvinism, don't worry. He's against him, too.
  
  
• Speaking of Roger "I can't distinguish the God of Calvinism from the devil" Olson, James White reviews Against Calvinism (part 1, part 2). It ain't pretty.
  
  
• One pastor's biggest fear about members of his congregation reading The Purpose Driven Life: that they might "become caught up in the Calvinism that undergirds the book's assumptions."
  
  
• The tragic hypocrisy of joyless Calvinism.

Church Sign Seen in Las Vegas

The sign for Valley Bible Fellowship...

This Week in Calvinism - November 4, 2011

• Paul Manata reviews Roger Olson's book Against Calvinism.
  
  
• Who's to blame for the rise of Calvinism? Arminians, says The Seeking Disciple.
  
  
• A Calvinist response to the charge that Calvinism's God is a moral monster.
  
  
• How to call for a Gospel response like a Calvinist.
  
  
• What does the World Series have to do with the Cross?

A New Movie from Rob Bell

From the brilliantly twisted mind of Eddie Eddings...

No Children Allowed?

This was printed in the program at a church I visited in San Diego...