Tag Archives: evangelical

Sheep and Goats

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Christian Conservative has an interesting
post on predestination.
Any of my Catholic readers want to refute his points?

Breaking down predestination

There is no Christian doctrine that I’ve found to be more humiliating than “predestination”, and no topic more difficult to understand. What is predestination? It’s the belief that God not only knows in advance who is bound for heaven or hell, but He is also in control over who makes the decision to seek God out in the first place.

[Folks should check out the comments, too. There’s an imaginative fellow who seems to think that all are destined for salvation. – Funky]

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

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This evening I wrote an email to Evangelical Christian talk show host Marty Minto. I anxiously await his response. In the meantime, I’d love for my Protestant readers to give me their take.

Marty,

I mean the following as a serious question, not just some anti-"sola scriptura" taunt. I honestly want your answer to this, so please be open minded to it.

You repeatedly make reference to "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:16) If there is a right way, there must also be a wrong way. My concern is that there seem to be so many ways. For nearly every belief you hold and defend with Scripture, I can find someone else who holds an opposing belief that they can defend with Scripture.

All who claim Scriptural support believe that theirs is the "right division" of the Word. Obviously, someone must be wrong. In fact, several must be. Is one necessarily right? Unless God’s Word returns void, there must be. Who is it? How can we know? When many reputable and born-again faithful hold differing interpretations of Scripture, who is to be trusted and believed? Does majority rule? Does one person or group hold the authoritative interpretation?

The Catholic and Orthodox churches believe that apostolic succession places interpretive authority with patriarchs (the bishop of Rome being the head patriarch according to Catholics). When the apostles, including Paul, were alive, they acted as supreme earthly authorities in disputes among the faithful. Before they died, they appointed successors to hold that authority. Until the Reformation, that succession of leaders was unbroken. Even the split between East and West did not break that. Once the Reformation began, it did not take long before very disparate interpretations and teachings arose. One need not be a trained scholar of the Reformation to know some of the differences between Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Wesley, and Fox, to name but a few. In the 400 years since that pivotal century, the number of denominations has grown exponentially. As soon as someone disagrees with the beliefs held by the majority of a denomination, they leave, often forming splinter groups of their own, where the process can repeat itself. While there are some constants between at least the mainline denominations, there are almost as many Evangelical interpretations and teachings as there are Evangelicals. With no central authority to appeal to, everyone can say theirs is the right reading of Scripture. Even among the mainlines, there are major disagreements and there is no final authority for them to appeal to. So I cannot help but ask this question of you:

Why should anyone trust your interpretations of Scripture over others? Perhaps you could answer this during Theological Thursday.

Eric

Bent Out of Shape

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I’m listening to the Marty Minto show right now (M – F, 3PM – 6PM on
101.5 WORD-FM in Pittsburgh) and he’s about to have a coronary because
a day care
center is teaching yoga to kids. He’s yelling for people to repent
and generally carrying on like a corner apocalyptic preacher. I called
the show and gave him an earful about the fear-monger he is. In his
eyes, there is no way anyone can practice yoga without being drawn into
Hindu. Oy!

For more about yoga and Christianity, check out this
Messy Christian post. Let me know what you think.

Is Yoga unChristian?

Just a year ago, my answer would’ve been absolutely. But the funny thing that happens when your worldview comes crashing down is that you start to question everything that you once so firmly believed in. I learnt, in the past few months, that one’s “version” of Christianity or how one practices it is largely influenced by cultural and societal pressures/factors. I even start to question the validity of the word “true Christianity” because one’s true Christianity is another’s “backslidden” Christianity.

This post is not to discuss why Yoga is B.A.D. I’ve heard them all, people. Nor is it to discuss why yoga is good.

I want to think beyond the good/bad mentality that many of us Christians have where we’re forced to choose sides. I want to get above that. One, because I’m tired of this line of reasoning. Two, because life is just not so simple!

I Loathe PETA

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How do you make two awful things worse? Combine them. The result is worse than the
sum of the parts. Jack Chick and PETA. *shudder*

Of
Chick and Chickens: The Strange Connection Between PETA and Evangelism

The flier with the charming title “Your Mother Kills Animals” helps spark children’s imaginations by asking them how they would “feel if someone were to take away their kitty or puppy, stomped on their head, and ripped their skin off their bodies?” The tract ends as many of these public service type booklets do, by leaving the kid with some useful advice: “Keep your doggie or kitty friends away from mommy – she’s an animal killer!”

If you’re like me, you might be wondering who could have devised such a brilliant idea. While I can’t be certain, I know of only one man in America who has the genius to dream up this type of campaign — Jack Chick.

Hidden Impact?

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Perhaps the impact of The Passion of the Christ was bigger than I was initially
led to believe. The Mighty Barrister seems to think the
survey results are biased.

“Despite marketing campaigns labeling the movie the ‘greatest evangelistic tool’ of our era, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of those who saw the film stated that they made a profession of faith or accepted Jesus Christ as their savior in reaction to the film’s content.”

Surprised? I was at first, but not once I did a little digging. It turns out that George Barna, “Founder and Directing Leader of the Barna Research Group, Ltd.,” is a born-again evangelical.

Barna’s religious preferences appear to have colored his conclusions, if not the survey’s methodology itself. Take, for example, the last sentence in the quote above. It is almost guaranteed that nearly all of the people who saw the movie were believers in Christ before they saw the movie. He tells us that 53% of the people who saw the movie were “born again Christians,” but he doesn’t tell us how many were Catholics. In fact, the only time he mentions Catholics at all is in a slightly disparaging remark, noting that “Protestants were more likely than Catholics to give The Passion an “excellent” rating (78% versus 68%, respectively),” – and this is mentioned right after he says that the groups most likely to disparage the movie were “atheists and agnostics, homosexuals and liberal Democrats.” We are in fine company.