Shallow small group

Because when things get too deep, people drown.

This Week in Calvinism - January 30, 2015

• Tim Challies on how to offend a roomful of Calvinists.
  
  
• Paul Dohse offers to help Challies and other Calvinists with evangelism. Um...thanks, Paul, but no thanks.
  
  
• A more generous Calvinism?
  
  
• SBC pastoral search committees must learn to weed out closet Calvinists.
  
  
• Desiring God has 24 free ebooks for you.
  
  
• Finally, if you're really bored, here's yet another "Calvinism is complete heresy" article. Nothing you haven't heard a million times before.

Justin Taylor offers biblical reasons to doubt 24-hour creation days

I have always held to the belief that the earth is relatively young. As to the exact age, I cannot say, but I still believe that its age can be measured in terms of thousands of years rather than millions or billions.

Justin Taylor leaves open the possibility of an old earth. In doing so, he offers some biblical reasons to doubt that the creation days mentioned in Genesis refer to 24-hour periods of time. He concludes:

God is portrayed as a workman going through his workweek, working during the day and resting for the night. Then on his Sabbath, he enjoys a full and refreshing rest. Our days are like God's workdays, but not identical to them.

How long were God's workdays? The Bible doesn't say. But I see no reason to insist that they were only 24 hours long.

I remain convinced of my position. First of all, regardless of how we wish to handle "day" in Genesis, each one, save for the seventh, has the clear distinction of having an "evening and morning." If the word "day" is supposed to refer to an indeterminate amount of time, does that mean the words "evening" and "morning" are just as ambiguous?

Let me pause to say that I realize the first three days wouldn't have included sunset and sunrise, because the sun wasn't created until the fourth day. But since even the original readers of this account would have only known days marked by an evening and morning, it makes sense that an author wishing to convey that the world was created in six 24-hour days would use the terminology he did.

Secondly, Jesus seemed to believe that the each day in Genesis referred to a rather short time span when he said that "from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'" "From the beginning" doesn't leave much room to squeeze in vast amounts of time.

There are other reasons for my skepticism, but in spite of that I do appreciate Justin's post. It endeavors to interpret the Genesis creation account in light of scripture rather than the prevailing scientific consensus. The belief that the creation days weren't necessarily 24 hours in length does not mean that one must assume macroevolution and death before the fall.

Justin also reminds us that some of the great names in Reformed history were open to a non-literal interpretation of the creation account. He quotes J. Gresham Machen, who wrote, "It is certainly not necessary to think that the six days spoken of in that first chapter of the Bible are intended to be six days of twenty four hours each."

I would agree. After all, determining the age of the earth is not as fundamental as, say, the deity of Christ.

In short, calculating the age of the earth is not a hill upon which I am willing to die. If I can find common ground with Arminians, I can certainly find common ground with Old-Earthers.

This Week in Calvinism - January 23, 2015

• You're invited to the "God, Governments, and Culture 2015 Conference" next month in Tempe, Arizona.
  
  
• You're also invited to a conference this fall in Emden, Germany, on "Luther and Calvinism: Image and Reception of Martin Luther in the History and Theology of Calvinism."
  
  
• No, D. G. Hart. We don't trust scientists only when they agree with us; we trust scientists when their conclusions aren't in direct contradiction with scripture.
  
  
• Brian Myers of Caffeinated Thoughts Radio on Roger Olson's problem with Calvinism.
  
  
• Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? No, Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and God just followed along. Apparently, God is not sovereign over his creation, he just "goes with the flow" (10:31). After all, "free will" must reign supreme.
  
  
• Dieudonne Tamfu offers you biblical ammunition in the fight against porn.

Thinking of starting a family? It's kind of like this...

This Week in Calvinism - January 16, 2015

• Roger Olson asks (rhetorically), "Is there a difference between 'permitting evil' and 'doing evil'?"
  
  
• Roger Olson: the Arminian Peter Singer?
  
  
• No one wants God, because a God who imposes salvation on sinners who want nothing to do with him is cruel. Kind of like when Jesus imposed sight on the blind?
  
  
• John Piper addresses the question, "Why so few African-American Calvinists?"

This Week in Calvinism - January 9, 2015

• The Classics in Religion Reading Group in Kingston, New York, began a series titled "Calvin vs. Wesley." The weekly discussions continue to the end of the month.
  
  
• Brainly.com is a site that allows students to help each other with their homework. Of course, seeing things like this makes me wonder if it's really all that helpful:

  A key belief of Calvinism in the 1500s was that human beings are born free from all sins. children should not attend religious services. only priests and popes should interpret the Bible. some people are picked before birth for salvation.

  
  
• A young man who grew to hate "the god of Calvinism" read Roger Olson's book Against Calvinism, and wrote to thank him for "providing a thick alternative and for hopefully starting a trend of good scholarly Arminianism."
  
  
• Jonathan Norman begins responding to the recent post by Leighton Flowers titled "The Five Points That Led Me Out of Calvinism."
  
  
• Check out a new feature from Desiring God called "Sermon of the Day."

This Week in Calvinism - January 2, 2015

• Part four of Roger Olson's review of Deviant Calvinism: Broadening Reformed Theology.
  
  
• Five points that led Leighton Flowers out of Calvinism.
  
  
• Who are #the15?
  
  
• Dr. Randy White joins #the15: "It doesn't take a Calvinist to get angry at the situation at LifeWay."
  
  
• Alan Fahrner isn't joining #the15.
  
  
• Apparently, the reach of #the15 extends beyond the SBC.