What I'm Doing Now Update

In the short time between my last post, I have finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's Stranger Than Fiction, and then read all of his novel Diary. Right now I'm on the road so I just brought the Kornbluth book with me.

It is hot, hot, hot in Texas right now. I'd love to go someplace nice and cold.

James White recently conducted a Great Debate with a Roman Catholic, which sends their nuttier apologists into a frenzy. Art Sippo, in particular. He loves to spew out all sorts of nasty things about Dr. White, and I can't see any sort of proof or documentation for the things he says. He accuses Dr. White of being abusive, but I have never seen any such thing. James White can be very blunt and he doesn't allow himself to be pushed around, but he never says anything beyond what is true. I have never seen him try to bully people around, like Sippo claims. However, White doesn't allow himself to be bullied around, either, and this may be what the Catholics don't like. But really, and I think this is true for any group that disagrees with truth, what the Romanists are really upset about, and what they perceive as being abuse, is the fact that he believes that many of their tenants are anti-Gospel. So when White says that, for example, the Roman concept of justification goes against the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Sippo believes that this sort of comment is abusive. But that's just my opinion. Like a Catholic, I am full of them.

What Am I Doing Now?

Since I've been so silent lately, I thought I should let you all know what I'm doing. So you can know I'm still alive and all that. Of course, my existence is defined by my recreational activities, so that is what I'm going to list for you.

Currently reading:
Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will
Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger Than Fiction
C. M. Kornbluth, His Share of the Glory

Currently listening to:
AC/DC, Stiff Upper Lip

Currently watching:
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 408, Hercules Unchained

Keep circulating the tapes!

If Only Arminians Were So Honest...

"God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us." -- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter 26.

"So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." -- Romans 9:16.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." -- Ephesians 2:8, 9.

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." -- John 1:12, 13.

Lately I've been reading Jonathan Edwards' Freedom of the Will, and so this sort of thing has been on my mind lately. When I came across the Machiavelli quote, I thought it was very appropriate. Most Arminians are not willing (if I may so pun) to completely disregard phrases such as "no man may boast," so they still pay lip service to it while contradicting it in their doctrine (such as by affirming that it is their own pre-regenerate will that decides their soul's fate). This sort of contradiction and inconsistency just boils my potato, so it is refreshing to see someone honestly declare that he believes that a share of the glory is owed to man, despite the words of St. Paul.