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In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Sevenoneself wrote:In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Did you feel the urge…the urge to Spurge?

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Did you feel the urge…the urge to Spurge?

Haha! 

I met a friend who is a very friendly Calvinist and who is willing to discuss this a bit. He recommended reading this. So far...not impressed, but I want to give the book the best try I can.

^^ Have you picked this up yet?

Sevenoneself wrote:^^ Have you picked this up yet?

I haven’t. I’m curious as to its differences from Whosoever Will that came out about 10 or so years ago.

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:^^ Have you picked this up yet?

I haven’t. I’m curious as to its differences from Whosoever Will that came out about 10 or so years ago.

They discuss it on this podcast. I think the main difference is that they included non-SB authors. But there might be a few others.  

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Did you feel the urge…the urge to Spurge?

LOL.

Sevenoneself wrote:...who is a very friendly Calvinist...

A friendly member of the Frozen Chosen???  Unheard of!     Haha but on a serious note, I'll be curious what you think.  I haven't read that book, but having grown up in a non-denom Arminian church and home, and only coming to the Reformed understanding much later in life, at least in my experience I've found it it to be more consistent with Scripture.  Additionally, my awe, reverence, love, and [proper] fear of God has increased greatly.  And having always been "a pretty good kid" it was easy to think that I "deserved" salvation from having made good decisions (to "accept Jesus into my heart," etc.) but the Reformed understanding squashed my pride in that regard and has elevated greatly my views of God's awesome grace and mercy: that He'd choose save even me!

Sorry for the rambling, I don't mean to hijack the thread.  Carry on gents.

Kerrick wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Did you feel the urge…the urge to Spurge?

LOL.

Sevenoneself wrote:...who is a very friendly Calvinist...

A friendly member of the Frozen Chosen???  Unheard of!     Haha but on a serious note, I'll be curious what you think.  I haven't read that book, but having grown up in a non-denom Arminian church and home, and only coming to the Reformed understanding much later in life, at least in my experience I've found it it to be more consistent with Scripture.  Additionally, my awe, reverence, love, and [proper] fear of God has increased greatly.  And having always been "a pretty good kid" it was easy to think that I "deserved" salvation from having made good decisions (to "accept Jesus into my heart," etc.) but the Reformed understanding squashed my pride in that regard and has elevated greatly my views of God's awesome grace and mercy: that He'd choose save even me!

Sorry for the rambling, I don't mean to hijack the thread.  Carry on gents.

Thanks for sharing that, Kerrick. If time and energy permits, I would LOVE to discuss this more with you in a PM or even on the forum. I want to become friends with more Christians of backgrounds and theologies that are different from me, and understand where they're coming from. After all I've gone through in my life with church, from a fairly fundamentalist background to Evangelical Free and, in the last 5 years, an attempted Calvinist/Fundamentalist coup of our church, I am on a crusade to be united with as many believers as possible. I would love to be a part of a mov't that demonstrates that orthodox believers can unite around 1st level doctrines, and not just around level 2 ones.

My library copy of "Finding The Right Hills to Die On" just arrived today, so I'll be reading through that. I believe the Triage Principle is quite ingenious in helping Christians understand conflicts and how to work through them, and I'm excited to get Ortlund's thoughts and research on it. 

Sorry for the rambling, carry on gents!

Kerrick wrote:

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:In Defense of Calvinism - Spurgeon

Did you feel the urge…the urge to Spurge?

LOL.

Sevenoneself wrote:...who is a very friendly Calvinist...

A friendly member of the Frozen Chosen???  Unheard of!     Haha but on a serious note, I'll be curious what you think.  I haven't read that book, but having grown up in a non-denom Arminian church and home, and only coming to the Reformed understanding much later in life, at least in my experience I've found it it to be more consistent with Scripture.  Additionally, my awe, reverence, love, and [proper] fear of God has increased greatly.  And having always been "a pretty good kid" it was easy to think that I "deserved" salvation from having made good decisions (to "accept Jesus into my heart," etc.) but the Reformed understanding squashed my pride in that regard and has elevated greatly my views of God's awesome grace and mercy: that He'd choose save even me!

Sorry for the rambling, I don't mean to hijack the thread.  Carry on gents.

That’s how reformed theology should affect someone, even if it’s (sadly) not always the case. (Not that arrogance is unique to reformed theology!) My favorite reformed teachers have tended to be humble guys.

Just finished Jared Wilson’s Gospel Driven Ministry. I highly recommend it for any pastors or anyone who’s considering the pastorate.

Now: Recanting Calvinism by Steven Hitchcock.

Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality. It's a fantasy/sci-fi series of eight books. Read the first 7 books over 30 years ago, but I just picked up the "Under a Velvet Cloak" from 2007, so now I'm reading the entire collection again. It's really good...I highly recommend it.

Dr. Richard Gallagher, Demonic Foes.

Dr3ams wrote:Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality. It's a fantasy/sci-fi series of eight books. Read the first 7 books over 30 years ago, but I just picked up the "Under a Velvet Cloak" from 2007, so now I'm reading the entire collection again. It's really good...I highly recommend it.

I read those back in my college years. They were kind of silly but totally delightful. I think I tried something else Anthony and it was too cheesy (not sure I even remember this right), but these were fun for sure.

Vance Pitman with Sam O’Neal: The Stressless Life: Experiencing the Unshakable Presence of God’s Indescribable Peace

John Frame: The Doctrine of God.


Love me some Frame.

Paul David Tripp: Parenting 

^How do you like it?  We read Tedd Tripp's book Shepherding a Child's Heart.  I think he's Paul's son?  It was a decent book with a lot of good, though my wife and I found a fair bit to disagree with too.  One of the main things is that his techniques lacked grace, though it's been a while since I read it.  Have you read that one as well?  Anyways, I'll be curious what your thoughts are on Parenting!

I like it so far. I have Shepherding, but I haven't read it yet. I will say that Paul is usually pretty grace-centered, but that might not be the case for Tedd. A recent read that was really good was Clay Clarkson's The Life-Giving Parent. It had a big emphasis on grace.

Right on!

Sevenoneself wrote:

I'll be interested in what you think of this, please do report back when you're done.

Grindboy wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

I'll be interested in what you think of this, please do report back when you're done.

White people bad!!!



Pass.

^^ I'll let you know! 

I know I'm getting into controversial stuff here, so I'll just give you my experience and you'll have to accept it for what it is!

I've been following Julie Roys for awhile (and those who are sympathetic of her work), and for the most part I'm impressed with her work. Those who follow her love this book.

I also follow and love Frank Turek, Greg Koukl, Sean Mcdowell, WLC, The Recovering Fundamentalist. They have varying levels of critique for this book, from flat-out rejection to guarded optimism.

A few weeks ago I re-connected with one of my former bible college professors whom I really respect. He had recently read it and gave a mostly optimistic view of it. He said, at the least, I should read it for myself.

So...I will give a review when I'm done!