If a picture says a thousand words, then three pictures say three-thousand right? Listen up!
President Regan
President Bush
President Obama
Are you listening?
Archive for June, 2009
I had a rather unsettling experience last week. I’d signed up to help out a church by being a counselor for their boys at children’s camp. I hadn’t thought anything of it when I donned my “You don’t scare me, I’m a Calvinist” shirt that morning. I wasn’t at camp five minutes when the camp pastor explained to me this particular group of Baptist churches didn’t subscribe to Calvinist teaching and that my Calvinist doctrine wasn’t welcome.
Two thoughts occurred to me:
- Does this man know what Calvinist (or more properly reformed) doctrine is?
- How far has the SBC fallen that we are ignorant of and opposed to the doctrines upon which we were founded?
He spent several minutes repeatedly stating, “You haven’t done anything wrong,” yet continued to chastise me as if I had. Arguing with him, or even attempting a discussion at that time I knew would be futile. I simply said, “Not a problem” and submitted to his authority at that camp.
It was obvious that he’d had a very unpleasant experience with some person (or persons) claiming to follow Calvinist doctrine. I’d hoped to find opportunity to sit down with him that week to work things out and come to an understanding of how he’d come to the place he was at doctrinally. It didn’t happen. What I find humorous about the experience is that throughout the week I kept hearing snippets of reformed theology from some of the other teachers and counselors.
I’m thinking that while there may be an opposition to the label of “Calvinism” they are not as opposed to the doctrines of grace as some of them may think.
The following list is stolen directly from Dr. Voddie Baucham’s blog “Truth in Love.” I have not reproduced the entirety of his reasoning for each point. I have given you a sample. For the full article I do encourage you to head over to Dr. Baucham’s blog.
5. YOU DON’T HAVE TO
You don’t have to take them back to the local government indoctrination center next semester.
4. AMERICA’S SCHOOLS ARE AMONG THE WORST IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD
One of the issues that many Christians seem willing to ignore is the fact that sending children to American schools represents extremely poor stewardship. American students continually rank at the bottom in math, science and reading compared to other industrialized nations (see here). That’s right, our educational system is among the world’s worst!
3. AMERICA’S SCHOOLS ARE MORALLY REPUGNANT
The headlines speak for themselves.
2. GOVERNMENT EDUCATION IS ANTI-CHRISTIAN
The result of non-Christian education is anti-Christian education. Government schools must be anti-Christian. They can be nothing else. Therefore, to send a child to a government school is to have them trained in an anti-Christian environment for 14,000 instructional hours. To get that much instruction from church a child would have to attend two hours a week for one hundred and forty years!
1. THE BIBLE COMMANDS CHRIST-CENTERED EDUCATION
…there are a number of passages that speak directly to the issue of training ourselves and our children intellectually, spiritually, philosophically and morally (See Deut. 6:6,7; Prov. 1:7; Eph. 6:4, etc). We also have numerous warnings against allowing others to influence us intellectually, spiritually, philosophically, and morally (Psalm 1; Rom. 12:1,2; 2 Cor. 6:14ff; Col. 2:8, etc.).
I have decided that if Maggie’s life had a soundtrack, the song that would play during her sleep time would be “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas.
I just had one of my own web sites pop up as a result in a Google search. Sadly, I was no help to myself.
F0llowing up on my post of May 1st:
The only reason people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.
–Unknown
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Luke 22:41-44
A cup was often a symbol of suffering and divine anger (used also in Isaiah 51:17 & Ezekiel 23:33).
