THIS IS RIDICULOUS

From time to time, there are those who "find" America in the Bible with certainty and then there are those who find that America "may" be in the Bible.Two such examples will follow.

Back on September 11, 2018, a columnist for "The Daily Star" declared that 9-ll may have been predicted in the Bible. The writer "found" the prediction in the book of Revelation, chapter 18 to be exact. The text reads, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!"

Then she writes, "Some" (who the "some" is undefined) believe the fact that fallen is mentioned twice is a reference to the fact that there were Two Towers making up the World Trade Center. she goes on to point out, "Three times in the chapter, St John describes the desolation as happening in one hour.

In verse 10 he writes “Alas alas that great city, for in one hour your judgement has come. Verse 17 reads “For in one hour such great riches come to nothing”.And in verse 19 “in one hour she has become desolate.”

John is predicting the destruction of the center of the political system at the end of the Great Tribulation which has nothing to do with two large buildings in NYC prior to September 11, 2001. 

The 2nd example is a wildly popular Bible "teacher" who "found" the Bible's prediction of 9-11, this time, not in Rev. 18, but of all places, in Habakkuk 1:8: "Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening.Their horsemen come galloping,Their horsemen come from afar;They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour."

However, God clearly identifies those who are coming "from afar." They are the Chaldeans as stated in 1:6, 15. And, just in case you missed it, God also gave the false teacher the revelation that the swooping eagle in 1:8 are the two airplanes that hit Twin Towers. Who would have thought? Evidently there was no prediction of the third plane which flew into the Pentagon the same day in the coordinated attack nor of the plane that crashed before hitting its target. 

It's strange: Habakkuk says "an eagle," yet there were two planes, not one, and four if you count the Pentagon plane and the one that crashed.The prophet didn't get the number right.

So, according to this "prophet,"he was the only one who found the attack in the book of Hab. 1:8.

From this we see two marks of a false teacher: 1) They find America in the Bible. This is guaranteed to rev up the audience and their readers and 2) they have special "revelations" or "visions" or "a word from the Lord." Each one guaranteed to further excite the folks.

WHEN ONE SENTENCE WILL DO

 

 Three of Calvinism's brightest lights are seated on stage awaiting questions from the moderator which were taken from the audience. The three Calvinist theologians are Lawson, MacArthur, and Sproul. If anyone should be able to answer the queries, these three would be the ones. 

The host begins with an interesting question from the assembled: "Why do you think that so many resist Calvinism?" That’s a good question and one which brought forth a condescending and insulting answer from Lawson. But his answer will leave the true answer unsaid. The answer he gave: “Because they don’t know the Bible.” This answer, being interpreted means, "Because they're ignorant but we aren't."

Really? Some well-known people who aren't ignorant of the Scriptures and who reject Calvinism are: C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Norman Geisler, John Lennox, and Zane Hodges, et al. These people don’t know the Bible? 

His answer was an example of what’s known in debate as “the ad hominem fallacy.” Instead of discussing the argument itself, criticism is directed toward the opponent’s character. Another example of the ad hominem fallacy is:

Person 1: I think it's important to enforce minimum-wage legislation so that workers are not exploited.

Person 2: Nonsense. You only say that because you just can’t get a good job!

The Q/A went on from there. But what’s important is that Lawson should have given the answer according to Calvinism in one sentence. (Why he didn’t give the correct answer according to his system is another matter) According to Calvinism, in the system he was defending, the crucial doctrine is, "a belief in meticulous divine determinism over every thought, choice and event throughout human history." Here are some quotes by Calvinists:

J. I. Packer

“God… orders and controls all things, human actions among them…He [also] holds every man responsible for the choices he makes and the courses of action he pursues… Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is also divinely controlled; man is divinely controlled, though he is also a responsible moral agent. To our finite minds, of course, the thing is inexplicable. (This the familiar Calvinist retreat from “contradiction” to “an inexplicable mystery.")

R. C. Sproul

“I am suggesting that God created sin.”

Gorden H. Clark

“I wish very frankly and pointedly to assert that if a man gets drunk and shoots his family, it was the will of God that he should do it…” He goes on to assert, “Let it be unequivocally said that this view certainly makes God the cause of sin.”

Mark Talbot and John Piper

"God brings about all things in accordance with his will. It isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those that love him; it is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects… This includes God’s having even brought about the Nazi’s brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz as well as the terrible killings of Dennis Rader [BTK] and even the sexual abuse of a young child.”

So now we come to it. What did the one sentence Calvinist not say, that, according to his Calvinistic system, he should have said? If he had been true to his system, he would have said: “The reason why so many resist Calvinism is because God decreed before the foundation of the world that they would resist and be ignorant." They had no other choice because God decreed it.

Therefore, according to their theology, God decreed their resistance and their ignorance, and their pride (which added as another reason for people's resistance) and yet, God will hold them accountable for the resistance, the ignorance, and the pride and punish them for it. 

Or to say it as another way as an author who left Calvinism did, "He predetermined people to sin, and then held them accountable for what they could not have refrained from doing." 

Why didn't he give what is, according to his theology, the correct answer? As we say in America, "Go figure."

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