Alpha and Omega Ministries: Recent Episodes
Spent most of the hour talking about the edits that went into the 2025 update of the ESV, though that is not the most exciting topic to be addressing! This will be the last "regular" DL for a while as I head out on the road next week, so grab the AO App so you can get notifications about our upcoming Road Trip DLs!
Late day show today wherein we covered the North Dakota abolition vote, Rick Warren's horrific eisegesis, Bill Craig on Jesus' "re-incarnation," Eric Conn and the PWC, and then to a lengthy discussion of Honorius, Francis, and world's most useless dogma, "Papal Infallibility."
Caught a few of the amazing stories coming out about how the left has used the US treasury as their own private slush fund, then moved on to a couple of tweets I forgot to cover Tuesday, one from Stephen Wolfe about a biblical theology of climate change, the other from Eric Conn about my desperation and irrelevance. Also covered some of the upcoming stops, and debates, on the next trip (which begins in about ten days).
Went for a jumbo edition today in the big studio with the big board! Commented briefly about the Roman Catholic penitential procession video that made the rounds a few days ago, then we looked at Stephen Wolfe's lengthy tweet about the term "worldview" and how we would be better off abandoning it. Hardly surprising, but I disagreed!
Went a full 90 minutes today starting with Corey Mahler and the Stone Choir Cult's attack on my last evening, followed up by Mahler's amazing promotion of Marcion's gnosticism. I used his false statements about the name Yahweh to go into church history and trace the damage that was done by the loss of the knowledge of Hebrew and how this impacted the development of sub- and anti-biblical traditions. We also looked at a claim by Leighton Flowers about church history (always entertaining), a sola scriptura meme, and a brief inquiry as to whether JD Hall's elders know he is back to doing what destroyed him, his church, and his ministry, only two years ago.
I was said to be part of the "PWC crowd" in a statement this morning by a young social media type guy, so we looked at what the PWC is, a bit about R.R. Reno, stuff like that, then switched over to Jeremiah chapter ten and some great jewels provided in God's glorious Scriptures.
Started off with some of the current developments on the world and national stage, then looked at the amazing example of the National Prayer Service yesterday morning in Washington, and the leftist "bishoptrix" at the National Cathedral. How do denominations die? Where do they begin? Then we moved on to how quickly the anon army is abandoning the positions they once held for, well, for what, exactly? They don't seem to know!
Is Andrew Tate "sinning in the right direction?" I am not even sure what that is supposed to mean, but we spent some time talking about Andrew Tate and the fascinating interaction Christians have been having with him. Then we just about burned the clutch out by shifting over to a discussion of "Ecumenical Councils" and specifically the so-called 7th Ecumenical Council, Second Nicea, held in 787.
Sometimes you just have a bunch of windows open on the computer and just do your best to work through them! Results in a lot of different topics covered, but hey, that way you might find something that grabs your interest!
A number of items on the table today including some words from Mel Gibson about the Pope, a discussion of Wes Huff on Rogan, the sufficiency of Scripture, and some more statements from Calvin Robinson prompting us to again ask Joel Webbon whether he would allow Robinson to commit trashworld to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Had so much positive feedback on Twitter when I mentioned possibly doing a program where I just go over debate prep, tools, rules, practice, etc., just had to do it! I didn't expect it to go nearly two hours, but I guess I should have! Hope you enjoy it!
A listener sent in the printed schedule of my events from my trip to New York in April of 1998, which I read through as evidence of the fact that Chris Arnzen tried to kill me back then! After a bit of that we looked at some Marian devotion issues relating to the gospel, and then focused in on the Book of Abraham in the LDS Scriptures.
The addition of Catholic speaker Calvin Robinson to the line up at the the Defeating Trashworld Conference in April has stirred up a lot of controversy, and properly so. Stephen Wolfe chimed in today with a tweet about his viewpoint on issues, so we really had to take some time to consider where this is all going, and what it all means. And I got distracted by my Apple Watch a few times. Just saying!
Talked a bit about how modern tech is allowing us to "read" ancient scrolls that have been fossilized over time, then looked at some insights, and corrections, from our friend TurretinFan regarding the TR, the book of Revelation, etc. Then transitioned into more recent developments into the influx of Nazi apologists into "Reformed" churches, and the Reformed men who are, foolishly, refusing to protect the flock.
Started off with some seasonal thoughts about Incarnation, Crucifixion, the differing emphases between East and West on those topics, etc., and then transitioned into looking at statements being made on line attempting to create a false narrative that simply goes against history.
Last Road Trip DL for 2024 coming from Holbrook, Arizona this evening. Started off looking at Joel Webbon's defense both of "anons" and using them to mock people "right off X," naming Owen Strachan as an example. Then we discussed the encounter between Wes Huff, a Christian scholar and apologist, and Billy Carson, an Internet "influencer" of some kind, and Carson's claims that Jesus was not crucified, etc.
I am in western Oklahoma, just shy of the Texas panhandle, and I am truly in the middle of nowhere. But, we set up Starlink and got the job done! Pretty much went through a Twitter thread from a fellow named BG Apustaja and replied to his assertions about how I have become "unhinged," which led to a discussion of a lot of different topics. Rich said he enjoyed the show, so, there's that! Oh, and I mentioned this book and how you should get it from Jason Lisle's ministry!
I am parked in the frozen tundra of St. Charles but we still managed to spend an hour talking mainly about the oral arguments presented at the Supreme Court yesterday regarding SB1, Tennessee's law prohibiting the use of chemicals on minors to "transition" them. It was a truly disheartening thing to listen to the entire session and realize that you cannot even pretend the Christian worldview is relevant in the governing of the United States any longer.
Got a program in from windy, and soon to be very cold, St. Charles Missouri, where I will be speaking on God's response to the LGBTQ revolution this weekend, the 24th year I have spoken at Covenant of Grace Church. Talked a bit about "Reformedville" and happenings therein, eventually transitioning into the glorious truth of the sufficiency of Scripture from Luke 24. May sneak another program in tomorrow, Lord willing, despite the fact that tomorrow here in St. Charles the high temperature will not make it above freezing!
I promised Tobias Riemenschneider I would hold off on responding to the tsunami of ignorance-based, infantile slander on social media until he could speak his own mind, which he has now done. So, here is my commentary, and I am glad to get this over with. Very few times in my ministry have I had to wade through this kind of stuff, but here we go. Anyway, only those with a real interest in why the internet is filled with childish memes mocking Tobias or me or Doug Wilson or Joe Boot will want to invest the time in this one, but, it is there for those who desire an honest summary of recent events. Oh, and as predicted, the responses I have already seen are definitely consistent with the 4th grade playground from which they are derived.
Did my usual Thanksgiving thing and pointed out that it should, in fact, be "usual" for Christians to give thanks and to live in a state of thanksgiving. Then we looked at the new "thing" to be all excited about, "The PWC," the post-war consensus. What is it, how do you define it, and how did it become the central issue in just a matter of a few months? Not sure when the next DL will be as I will be pulling out over the weekend, have long driving days, and next Thursday is Thanksgiving (official). Keep an eye on the A&O app for announcements!
Got an early program in (head out over the weekend again, so, time is short!). Discussed the Archbishop Welby resignation, new developments in the Steve Lawson saga, and then looked at statements from folks who are continuing to battle against a biblical view of Christian unity and of the nature of Christ's Kingdom. Uncertain about whether we will find a way to sneak another program in this week, but we will surely make a valiant effort!
Started off with noting a fund raiser for Joshua Haymes' little boy (kidney transplant) hoping our audience will pull together and help them over the top. Looked at some odd Jimmy Akin comments about Mary and sinfulness, then talked a bit about Trump's promises and the real, honest mountains he will have to climb to fulfill them, and how unlikely it is Republicans have the backbone to make the hard decisions. Then we started responding to yet another Stephen Wolfe tweet calling me, or at least my views, "moronic." We demonstrate Dr. Wolfe is lacking in theological acumen (how is that for a nice way to put it?). Finished up with some words for the 4th graders who are tossing sand in the air, demanding attention and not allowing sufficient time for an adult, rational, and thorough response from Tobias Riemenschneider.
So while I was gone Rich installed a new, bigger board in the big studio, so we had to try it out. Started with a discussion of the incredible amount of Nazi propaganda online these days, masquerading as Christian belief in supposedly Reformed churches. Lots of Confederates, Presbyterians, and 1689ers in the movement. Looked at a few posts and discussed the fact that people like Corey Mahler do not love young, disillusioned men, they use young disillusioned men. Then we moved to looking at the newly published ECM volumes for the book of Revelation, and went to the new big board to consider a few textual variants of interest.
I'm at my last stop before getting home tomorrow on this trip, and it was a really long drive today, so I just didn't have the energy to set up all the stuff for the regular video DL, so I recorded an audio only, 45 minute version with thoughts on the election, what we need to be doing for the next four years, and thoughts on the advance of the culture of death represented in this election cycle as well. I then finished up with a brief rejoinder to R. Scott Clark, once again, on the moniker "Reformed."
Don't worry, really didn't talk politics. Told some stories from the road, but spent the vast majority of the time working through Psalm 33, all to encourage us to wait upon the lovingkindness of Yahweh. Seemed quite fitting on a night light this, and had over 1000 folks watching! Hope it was encouraging to all who listened in!
Wow, covered a lot today! Rich will have to edit out a technical issue we had, but, we managed to get it all covered anyway. A bit about the election, and the amazing endorsement of Kamala Harris by the Babylon Bee! Hard to argue against their reasons! We talked about the Precious Moments figurines with weird connections to wild viewpoints coming out of the Vatican, how David Allen is going to try to prop up the absurd "Two Romans" theory, about the specifics of my debate with Tom Riello, and then finished up with Tobias Riemenschneider's response to Joel Webbon and what the real issues are in that controversy. I have no idea how long it will be once Rich cuts out the network drop we had, let alone my issues, but, well over an hour anyway! Not sure if I will get to do another program as I will be at the FLF conference in Fort Worth the whole weekend.
After a few minutes of the inevitable talk about being on the road, going through a McDonald's drive-thru looking for Donald Trump, and the current election situation, I commented on the Steven Anderson saga, and then spent the rest of the program talking about the claims Ammon Hillman made in the full 3.5 hour interview from which the short snippet was taken on the last Dividing Line. Serious, heavy, challenging stuff.
Road Trip #2 as I move toward Mobile and Saturday's important debate. Responded to yet another misunderstanding of the decree and time at the beginning of the program from Twitter, then dove into a wild video from some guy who is starting to get attention named Ammon Hillman. [Please note: I had some sound problems, but rolled the video back and picked it up; my apologies]. In this clip he makes wild (and false) claims about the Septuagint, early Hebrew, etc. and etc. I have found other material from this guy that is simply beyond blasphemous, and beyond absurd. I may provide further refutation of his many factual errors, but to be honest, some of his stuff is just beneath contempt. We will see!
First stop on my trip to Alabama. Covered how we need to think long-term to be faithful and thankful, and then talked about how Hebrews moves from deep theology to the practical application in the Christian life, and how the Heroes of Faith chapter (11) provides us with the kind of examples we should emulate today.
I'm doing three programs today, one up in Canada, then the DL, and then Marlon Wilson's show on YouTube. Hope the voice holds out! Talked about memorizing Scripture in my youth, the value of paper Bibles, the value of a Christian home. Then talked a bit about the craziness in our political scene right now, then talked a bit about Jacob Brunton, and then Leighton Flowers.
Didn't pull any punches today, folks. When the Nazis come after you it is time to shoot straight in return. Took on some nasty players today, but had to provide background information on, for example, the origination of the Mishnah, Gemara, and Talmud, etc. Hopefully useful to everyone, and a warning for those trying to "sneak in" to the church with their hatred.
Started off with a bit on the election, then tied this into the current developments in Rome with Francis making sure his legacy will continue to shift the direction of the Roman Church. Then addressed Joel Webbon's recent webcast about the now infamous Holocaust meme, and related issues amongst the "Reformed" (that term is just about to collapse due to exhaustion and breadth of definition). An hour and 20 minutes today.
Had another net issue today, but got everything recorded anyway. Talked a bit about the old -Jews are behind everything- stuff, looked at an example of sacralism in the martyrdom of a young baptist man by Reformed authorities, and then spent just a few minutes looking at a comment from Leighton Flowers.
It's been quite the day today -dock workers strike, stock market, Iran attacking Israel-, so I pondered a bit about the flood of information that comes at us, now instantly, and how that was not the case only a few decades ago. We talked about the need to form, and practice, a Christian worldview in these very challenging times. Then we switched over to a number of tweets by Stephen Wolfe, including one he -sub-tweeted- at me. Hopefully useful distinctions laid out.
Three sections to the program today. The first topic was a discussion on Romans 3 and its testimony to human sinfulness. The second was a relatively brief commentary on new developments in the Steve Lawson saga. The last was a discussion of the terms pietism, Anabaptism, and sacralism, prompted by a recent webcast that identified me as a pietist and an Anabaptist.
I was running the program alone today and forgot to get the music ready, so...not overly professional today- But, spent the first half hour on the survey that showed a huge percentage of young women voters whose primary concern is their ability to kill babies, and why this horrific reality is present in the West today. There is much to consider. Then we moved on to changes in the Salt Lake City Temple of the LDS Church, which is scheduled to re-open in 2026, and what they reflect in the changes in Mormonism as well. And then we briefly commented on more comments by Pope Francis that illustrate his heterodoxy as far as the historical position of Rome is concerned.
Couldn't avoid a few brief comments on the Steve Lawson issue that came to light today at the start of the program. Then I read through an eleven tweet thread written by Samuel Costner back on 8-31 regarding the Crusaders and my supposedly abandoning the younger generation by refusing to go along with the lionization of these Roman Catholic military expeditions. Covered a lot of stuff including answering the question, -Well, if not the Crusaders, then who should we look up to--- and -What does it mean to fight for the Kingdom of God today--- More than 90 minutes in length today.
A new book has been released by the father-son team of Richard and Christopher Hays titled The Widening of God's Mercy- Sexuality Within the Biblical Story. I hate to be the spoiler, but the thesis is, God changes His mind and His will, so it's OK to ignore what the Bible used to say about same-sex relationships, God's intention in marriage and creation, etc., so as to embrace the current cultural insanity. Yes, great stuff, but it is what we are dealing with today. And, ironically, that concept is also behind Pope Francis' recent statements indicating, minimally, his inclusivism, and possibly even his universalism. In either case, he teaches something completely different than what Rome has taught for a very long time.
Spent a little time at the start talking about the use of -projection- as an invalid means of argumentation, and then showed a video of a Marian procession from Spain and talked about the relevance to the gospel to such scenes. Then made connection to the recent Crusader controversy.
Did an early show today -but still had a large live audience for some reason-- and mainly covered two topics- first, a blog article Phil Johnson wrote 15 years ago that Stephen Wolfe identified as -moronic,- and then two LDS topics that illustrate just how much the Mormon Church has changed over the past forty years. Enjoy-
Spent the first half of the program looking at Revelation 2-2-5, and then transitioned into listening to ADRobles' ruminations on last week's DL about the Crusades. Over ninety minutes in length.
I explained at the start of the program that things had developed that required me to shorten the program and rush off a bit-to get my new -first time- hearing aids- Wow, did you know that the keys on a keyboard make little clicky sounds when you press on them-- Who knew-- I was pretty surprised they could do it so quickly, but since they are digital and they just load your hearing profile into them, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, that meant I had to get back to the doctor's office pretty quickly, so we only did about forty five minutes. I basically covered this strange saga going on right now regarding all the debates and discussions that everyone is saying need to take place right now. I responded to Steven Wolfe's tweet that read as follows----James, I would love to defend the Reformation before a live audience in formal debate against you.---So what issues does such a challenge raise-- Mainly, exactly what is it Steven Wolfe thinks inherently defines the Reformation that he needs to defend against the likes of me-- If we did not live in a day of knee-jerk reactions and emotionalism, most folks would stop and go, -Wait, what do you mean--- But, that is not the day we live in, so I had to go over the issues and ask the necessary questions. I think a debate would be wonderful, but it would have to be very clearly defined to be useful to the widest audience.
I explained at the start of the program that things had developed that required me to shorten the program and rush off a bit…to get my new (first time) hearing aids! Wow, did you know that the keys on a keyboard make little clicky sounds when you press on them? Who knew? I was pretty surprised they could do it so quickly, but since they are digital and they just load your hearing profile into them, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, that meant I had to get back to the doctor's office pretty quickly, so we only did about forty five minutes. I basically covered this strange saga going on right now regarding all the debates and discussions that everyone is saying need to take place right now. I responded to Steven Wolfe's tweet that read as follows:"James, I would love to defend the Reformation before a live audience in formal debate against you."So what issues does such a challenge raise? Mainly, exactly what is it Steven Wolfe thinks inherently defines the Reformation that he needs to defend against the likes of me? If we did not live in a day of knee-jerk reactions and emotionalism, most folks would stop and go, "Wait, what do you mean?" But, that is not the day we live in, so I had to go over the issues and ask the necessary questions. I think a debate would be wonderful, but it would have to be very clearly defined to be useful to the widest audience.
Started off with our dear brother Jason Lisle discussing his new paper on cosmology and its very, very important implications (both Rich and I struggled to keep up, but, that's just the nature of the information!). Here is the article at Jason's website https://biblicalscienceinstitute.com/astronomy/new-james-webb-space-telescope-observations-challenge-the-big-bang/ . Then I just calmly went back over the key issues that have arisen over the past week or so on social media regarding the promotion and lionization of the Crusades amongst ostensibly Reformed men. I can only express myself as clearly as possible, and trust the Lord to do the rest.
Two topics today. First forty minutes on my thoughts on the upcoming election and how, if the Marxists are victorious (and that may be a foregone conclusion), it could be the last even pretend election in our lifetimes, and how this should, in my opinion, impact those who have decided that not voting is their best choice. Then, in the last twenty minutes, I expressed my astonishment at how so many ostensibly Reformed brothers are lionizing the Crusades without even trying to touch the reality of their religious nature. Don't forget, on Thursday we will be joined by Dr. Jason Lisle to talk about a paper he has written challenging the standard cosmology of the day.
Snuck in a program today mainly focusing upon John 10 and Robert Gagnon's comments about -eternal security,- though we did start off with a few -our culture is collapsing into a Marxist cesspool- observations at the start.
After running our raffle and determining the winner of the wonderful Derek Melton blade, and after I spent some time talking about a neat and encouraging gift from a young man at Apologia, we turned to Roman Catholicism, Pope Francis, and the entire complex of Marian doctrines that are so utterly destructive to the gospel and to Christian experience. We will do another program tomorrow afternoon where I will be providing a response to Dr. Robert Gagnon on John 10-29 as well.
Covered a lot of ground today. Started off mentioning this video https---youtu.be-5mEMG4tkQf0 on Eastern Orthodoxy, as well as this video https---beneathsheepsclothing.movie- on the communist infiltration of the West. Then we revisited how Reformed men should approach any topic, but in particular, the topic of the New Covenant, baptism, etc., in light of further comments made on last week's debate with Jared Longshore. Then we played the audio of a 5 minute video I ran across containing a discussion between a Muslim and a Christian on a university campus. Went a full 90 minutes today-
Unusual Saturday program, but travel is that way. Thanked the local churches I ministered in on this trip, then talked a bit about Wednesday's debate with Jared Longshore, and then finished up with a response to a denial of the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ in justification, along with providing a refutation of how that denial is a manifestation of -biblicism.-
Mainly worked through the exchanges on line between myself and Eric Conn -Ogden- and Andrew Torba -GAB- on issues related to ethnicity, etc., though I started out looking at the utter collapse of the UK into Orwellian dystopia, and that right before our eyes. It is truly amazing.
A stormy weather DL from Golden, Colorado. Talked about some of the goings on in culture once again, then asked some questions of Eric Conn -hoping for helpful answers--, and finally toward the end looked at some issues regarding the debate with Tim Barber and my insistence that in the future my debate opponents not rely upon pre-written rebuttals and closing statements -since that isn't debating-. Rich says the feed died though on my end it said it was fine.
Had to spend 3-4 of the program responding to the amazing outpouring of, well, error and conspiracy and disrespect and nastiness on social media following the previous Dividing Line and my relatively short discussion on the meme mocking the Holocaust. Folks, there are serious, serious problems under the surface in a lot of Reformed churches. Beware- Keep an eye out- Then we suggested Mike Tyson should become Michelle Tyson and dominate the entire world of women's boxing -Babylon Bee type comment there-.
Started off with details about my upcoming debate with Tim Barber here in Colorado -Open Theism-, the conference the next day, preaching on Sunday, and next week's debate with Jared Longshore. Then had to discuss the degradation of the US's political system, the obvious -and welcomed by the Marxists- foreign interference, etc. Also discussed a priest's comments on mortal sin, Angela Belcamino's coming sadness, and Andrew Tate's words to Christians -and why he doesn't get it-.
Road trip DL from Colorado Springs prior to the debate on Saturday. Covered a wide variety of topics, but spent most of our time reading from Augustine and dealing with his use of the LXX, early translations, etc.
Started off with all the amazing developments since just last week in Western culture and in the US elections. Addressed the theory that the entire NT was originally written in Hebrew. Then started taking some great Twitter questions once again on a variety of topics. Headed to Colorado Springs tomorrow, should be doing another program on Thursday.
I am thankful that Twitter was not taken down by today's huge IT crash-failure, since we took our questions from our audience, and they were great questions- We will definitely have to do it this way in the future when I am traveling -much less technically challenging than trying to take calls when I am remote-. Covered a wide variety of topics, including challenging questions about the LXX and the Massoretic text, how to get a good education without putting your family into debt, etc. Thanks for all the participation-
More craziness today with people now going to Leviticus 8-23 and the placing of blood from the sacrifice of the ram on the right earlobe of Aaron, connecting this to Trump getting shot in the right ear. You can't make this stuff up. It's truly cultic, and we discussed it, along with other developments in the assassination attempt, Biden's sudden contracting of Covid -hmmm-, and, most importantly, the official abandonment of even playing the game that the RNC cares about marriage, the pre-born, morality, etc. They are truly just the DNC in slo-mo now. Very sad to see. Read a thread from Dusty Deevers discussing the issue.--Also announced that we will be starting the raffle for this gorgeous blade from Derek Melton https---subsplash.com-alphaandomegaministries-lb-ev--67mctqd later this week. Proceeds go to the Travel Fund. Check it out-
Did a program from my location in northern AZ and Starlink worked great for us today- Very pleased with that to be sure. Covered developments in the Republican Party -abandoning a biblical view of marriage and softening their position on abortion-, the attempted assassination of Trump, the wild and crazy stuff being said about Mary saving Trump, or Ephesians 6-11, etc., as well as Todd Starnes' amazingly embarrassing tweet about leaving any church that did not discuss the assassination attempt on Sunday.
After playing Joe Biden calling the president of Ukraine -President Putin,- we looked at how the passing of time has brought changes to Mormonism, and then looked at how such development takes place within Roman Catholicism as well.
Had our raffle for the Jeffery Rice rebind and the layered cross Rich made right at the start of the program. Then we talked a bit about Jake Brancatella and a situation in his life, and then dove into the many examples of the suicide of the West that came out over the weekend. We moved to Jonathan Merritt's article promoting the new revisionist book on homosexuality coming in September, and closed up looking at Francis assigning yet another compromised theologian to a high level committee, part of the continuing compromise of the Roman Church at its highest levels.
Jumped off from a few Twitter conversations to discuss -eucharistic miracles- and related topics, all pretty much on Roman Catholicism. I did start of the show with Biden's -I am not going to drop out, and we will beat Donald Trump in 2020-- statement from earlier today.
Talked a bit about the insane responses to a common sense SCOTUS decision, then went to the phones, covering Ignatius and the Eucharist -here's the video I mentioned-, what to do when asked to leave a church over Calvinism, supralapsarianism and the divine decree, intinction, Jeremiah 31-33-Romans 2-15, and finally -intellectual dispensationalism.-
Finally got around to having Jason Wallace join us to talk about this video he posted a while back on the fascinating topic of Cyril Lucaris, the Calvinist Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. If you are encountering the claims of Orthodoxy, this is a program you will want to listen to- Enjoy-
Started off today with a few interesting and funny tweets, wished Tom Buck a happy birthday, lamented tomorrow evenings Presidential -debate,- discussed Francis' detestation of the Latin Mass, and finished up looking at the comments of an open theist concerning God's decree and his demand that God be as limited and creaturely as the rest of us.
Covered a wide range today, from insanity in Germany, more and more studies showing the danger of the Covid jabs, the Biden Regime's war on Christians, a few interesting graphics I've run across, to finally in the last half of the program, a brief video from Barth Ehrman showing his theological shallowness and the reasons thereof. Also mentioned once again that on Friday we will be discussing this video, relevant to Eastern Orthodoxy.
We had to take time to read through Archbishop Virgano's utter torching of Francis and the current Vatican regime at the start of the program, then we took calls on the following topics- conjectural emendation in the Old Testament, issues relating to annihilationism-conditionalism, Shoemaker's critical study of the Qur'an, advice for a new father, developments in Mormonism, and raising godly children while pastoring a church. A full ninety minutes today-
Briefly commented on a year old tweet from Mike Winger on the amazingly loony -Passion Translation,- then moved on to talk about the Nicene Creed and the Southern Baptist Convention, looking at some comments of David Allen. Next week we hope to be joined by Jason Wallace who produced a 37 minute video about Cyril Lucaris, so today we looked at the Second Nicene Council, and read their anathemas. Enjoy-
Briefly addressed the -Mormon Question- in light of the recent get-together featuring Glenn Beck, then went to the phones, answering questions on the meaning of Elohim, Open Theism, Mormon Polygamy, prayer to saints, the Sovereignty of God, and finally the schools of Antioch and Alexandria.
Went more than 90 minutes today, mainly looking at first at the amazing corruption of the justice system in America and how it flows from the rejection of our Christian heritage and the embracing of secularism. Then we played a 60 second video from an Eastern Orthodox priest denying penal, substitutionary atonement. Then we finished up our response to Dan McClellan on the accuracy of NT manuscripts, and then jumped into a video he posted on the subject of homosexuality, presenting a revisionist, progressive view.
Worked through a thirteen tweet discussion about creeds and confessions and Biblical sufficiency from Dr. Brad Klassen, posted on 5-30, then got back to Dan McClellan's comments about the manuscripts of the New Testament.
Had a bunch of other stuff I didn't get to, but did manage to look at an excellent example of how KJVOism destroys real confidence in the Bible by looking at an example provided by Pastor Jonathan Burris -here- regarding the abuse of Deuteronomy 16-11 by one such KJVO advocate. Then we moved over to this video from Dan McClellan, starting to respond but giving a lot of background, looking at CBGM and some current developments in that field, etc. Heavy on the -geek- content today-
Played a video of Roman Catholics singing to a statue of Mary as backdrop to once again explaining that the latria-dulia distinction has no meaning or merit. Then commented quickly on the breaking news of Trump's conviction in New York, then moved on to comments from Soteriology 101 on election.
Spent most of the first hour dealing with the changing world of Mormonism in light of comments from the -Ward Radio Show- and the idea of -religious bigotry- in not accepting Mormonism and its plurality of Gods as a Christian church. Looked at a chart about global fertility rates and what the future might hold in light of the collapse of demography. Then we looked at some statements by different folks on various topics to close out the 90 minutes.
Listened to Senator Ted Cruz roasting a leftist, radical female judge and took the time to consider the issues at a deeper level. Then I looked at a few videos I've marked for review in my Twitter bookmarks, including a PCUSA minister denying the deity of Christ and a Roman Catholic arguing for the necessity of an infallible canon to have an inerrant text. Just a tad over an hour today-
Started off with the Pope's comments on 60 Minutes, and then dove into a refutation of Brent Lay's -Two Part Romans- theory -originated in 2013- that is being promoted by Jason Breda in a series of videos. The entire theory is based upon an alleged -ambiguous antecedent- in Romans 1-13, except, there is no such construction there, the antecedent is not ambiguous, and hence the theory is DOA, and needs to be abandoned. An hour and 45 minutes-
A wide range of topics on the DL today, from Pope Francis' comments in the upcoming 60 Minutes interview, to Leighton Flowers' -Calvinists think you have to be a better person to get saved- idea, to the amazing commitment of Adoniram and Ann Judson in bringing the gospel to Burma two hundred years ago. As I noted in the program, we do not know what next week will look like, schedule wise. Surgery -3 for me in only five weeks will be Monday.
I didn't want an entire week to go by without a program, so we snuck one in just under the wire- Gave a bit of a report on where I am as far as surgeries and the like go -another in just over a week-, and then I played a short clip from a dialogue Leighton Flowers did recently wherein he spoke of the Spirit's role, or non-role, in salvation, that is very helpful in focusing upon the real differences between the Reformation and Provisionism, which, I allege in this program, is sub-Roman when it comes to its view of grace.
How much do I love doing the Dividing Line, and love our audience-- Well, 36 hours after surgery I managed to pull off our first ever full Radio Free Geneva, including our -relatively- new video opening and closing- How's that for dedication- Gave a quick report on yet another exciting visit to the hospital while on the road, even getting to have surgery -oh the joy--, and then reviewed and responded to this video https---youtu.be-lwZYNSZIRLI from YouTube, and then, after a short break, went back to the Breda-Garza video https---www.youtube.com-watch--v-DiB0E1qkYXo I commented on Monday -just hours before an ambulance ride--. I invited Dr. Garza to come on the Dividing Line to discuss Hebrews 7 based upon the original languages. I hope he will do so-
Did a -DL Short- today -45 minutes- due to my not being in a location with sufficient net connection to do a live program. I still have three days of speaking here in Louisiana, then a quick run by Pryor next week before the long trip home. Wanted to review the debates over the last two evenings, and also make some other comments about upcoming trips, debates, ministry, etc.
Sounds like the beginning of a lame joke, doesn't it-- But, it was actually two topics, first, my responses to the Tucker Carlson-Doug Wilson program. Then, we looked at Pope Francis' idea that homosexual men are working out -love.- The program started fine, then, our internet connection died -yes, we are working on improving that situation, but can't do it on this trip- so we are just posting this now.
I really had not expected to get into this as deeply as we did, and this should have been a Radio Free Geneva, but be that as it may...we looked at the new film against -Once Saved, Always Saved,- listened to the opening section, talked about the necessary background issues, and then looked at the film's vain attempt to get around Romans 8. Started preaching a few times, but, it was necessary. So, play your downloaded version of the RFG them before listening to this program, it will make you feel better-
Well, I suppose the nice thing is the problem we had was net related, not related to our new set up. The equipment we have installed and set up in the new RV worked fine, but the net kept dropping out on us. I will have to set up Starlink as a back up for Thursday. Anyway, we talked a bit about the unit, the upcoming trip, and then played a clip from a fellow from Texas demonstrating how not to handle Scripture relating to the recent eclipse. Then we looked at Trump's statement on abortion, a unanimous decision from the Arizona Supreme Court, and a brief look at the new Vatican statement on human dignity.
Started off giving thanks for the life of Pastor Dennis Pillay in Durban, South Africa, a dear brother who passed into glory last week. Then we went to Zoom calls and covered topics such as the Descent of Christ, Catholic Answers, Christian YouTubers, the Lord's Supper, philosophy and extra biblical language, and equal ultimacy. In-depth questions- We have an amazing audience- An hour and twenty minutes today.
Spent a few minutes at the start predicting where the debates in a few weeks will go in Louisiana, then we started taking calls mainly on the topic of the five debates we did last month, hence discussions on the unitarianism debate, then moving on to the Flowers and Breda debates. Not sure when we will be doing another program, as we have much to do in prep for the next trip, but we will let you know-
Spent a few minutes at the start predicting where the debates in a few weeks will go in Louisiana, then we started taking calls mainly on the topic of the five debates we did last month, hence discussions on the unitarianism debate, then moving on to the Flowers and Breda debates. Not sure when we will be doing another program, as we have much to do in prep for the next trip, but we will let you know-
Two primary topics on the program today, first, the emptiness of secularism and our need to be continually aware of its influence upon our thinking, acting, and speaking. Then, Hebrews 10 and its testimony to the purpose of God in the sacrifice of Christ, a particularly relevant topic on this Resurrection weekend.
After a quick update on our travel issues-situation, we started to comment on the -Christ is King- controversy, digging down a bit into the theology and context of the statement and what it means. We also looked at some folks claiming -replacement theology- -it's fulfillment theology, but they don't want to view it fairly- is actually heretical. Then we played a few clips from the Provisionist Playground and provided correction. Again, if you would like to help get me to Louisiana for the upcoming debates, and help with the Road Trip DL set up in the new unit, the travel fund pull down menu can be found by clicking here. Thank you-
I was joined by two dear brothers, Reformed pastors in Frankfurt, Germany, Peter Schild and Tobias Riemenschneider, to talk about their work in Germany and about global Christianity. A most enjoyable conversation-
Went over what has been going on over the past few days about our RV---and that fact that we needed to make arrangements to obtain a different one, due to it being defective and needing to be rebuilt. Went through the whole story, mainly for our supporters, as we will need to raise some funds to make up the differences in the trade-in, upgrading our hitch, etc., and all in a matter of weeks since I need to head out in about four weeks for the debates with Jimmy Akin in Louisiana. If you can help us, you can donate to the Travel Fund here. Then we moved over to the Big Board and looked at Hebrews 1-10-12, and Dale Tuggy's attempt to get away from its testimony to the deity of Christ.
Spent two hours documenting the incredible mythology generated by Leighton Flowers and his guests regarding my supposed -Greek errors- over the past ten days. Everyone who has heard the stories should watch, take notes, and verify for yourselves. Truly, the end of the story, and time to move on. Hope you find it helpful-
Managed to pull off a solid internet connection from a slight wide spot in the road called Lordsburg, New Mexico -really sad little town...lots of abandoned buildings-. We covered a wide variety of things, including announcing the upcoming debates, April 24th and 25th, in Lafayette, Louisiana, with Catholic Answers apologist Jimmy Akin -sola scriptura, and -How Does a Man Have Peace with God----. We discussed conversion, anthropology, and more, looking at Ezekiel 36, Titus 2, and even an old article Robert Gagnon reposted about John 6-39.
We had a great group listening at the start but the stream died a thousand deaths tonight, so we had to just record the rest of the program. Discussed a few things from the Tuggy debate, and then moved on to more of the response from the Flowers debate. I had hooked up my second monitor so I could walk through the text again since I have felt like the Greek issues have somewhat clouded what is in fact the plain meaning of the gospel of John.
Today we went back over the key issues in the Flowers debate on John 6, looked more closely at 6-45, documented errors on LF's part, etc. Also thanked a bunch of folks for their support and a super cool gift I was given last evening -the A-O Bow Tie--. Spent about ten minutes looking at Chris Fisher's misuse of 1 John 2-20 -the Byzantine textual variant-, had a few words about tomorrow night's debate with Dale Tuggy as well.
Finally had the opportunity of doing the program again after a pretty challenging few weeks which included Urgent Care and ER visits, along with a lot of driving, teaching, etc. We talked about tomorrow night's debate with Leighton Flowers, and focused upon my thoughts about the Fisher-Slick debate from last week and what it revealed about the hearts of many. Then we reviewed the sad fact that Ergun Caner, fourteen years down the road, continues to pretend he was something he never was. A truly sad story.
We took the time today to go back over the controversy that has developed when I asked my debate opponent Saturday afternoon to tell us what one of the key texts on the atonement -and in my opening statement- actually means, and he refused to do so. I played the audio of the exchange, put the text on the screen, and we invested an hour and 15 minutes on the topic -after some introductory topics-. Not sure if we will be able to squeeze another show in this week, as I am teaching at GBTS Thursday through Saturday.
In February of 2024 James White and Trent Horn did two, back to back debates at First Lutheran Church in Houston. The first night was on sola scriptura, and the second on purgatory. It was the conjunction of these two debates that was most informative and useful. We invite our viewers to listen to both debates and compare the assertions concerning the -deposit of faith- and -apostolic tradition- in the first with the argumentation in defense of purgatory in the second. It is very enlightening-
Just had to make note of the monumental Alabama Supreme Court decision and the issue of -By What Standard- that simply cannot be avoided. Then we looked at some further issues I had forgotten to get to on the last program about claims Trent Horn made and how all of this is so vitally relevant to the direction Roman Catholic apologetics is heading. Important stuff-
I did not intentionally organize this past weekend's debates to provide the excellent insight into how Rome's claims are self-refuting, I promise you, but that's how it worked out. The contrast between the claims of Rome for a -apostolic deposit of faith- from the first debate and their inability to provide any kind of certain or stable foundation for a dogma -purgatory- in the second was not something I had aimed to produce. That was the Lord's doing, and I am thankful. So we spent 90 minutes today going over those important matters after just a few minutes at the top talking about the trip as well as the denigration of the justice system in a nation that has rejected the only solid ground for justice to begin with. Very hard to say when the next program will be, but keep an eye on the app for announcements-
Talked a little about the -He Gets Us- thing, gave a brief report on the Allie Beth Stuckey Show from Tuesday, then dove into the Protevangelium of James and read its narrative of the birth of Christ in light of the defense of this document as containing genuine Christian tradition by Roman Catholic apologists. We then moved on to discuss The Invention of the Inspired Text by John Poirier and his actual goals in writing his book. Don't know when the next program will be as I will be heading off to Tullahoma next week for the Why Calvinism conference, a debate, etc. Watch the app for announcements-
Back to on-the-road status for the program today- We covered what's going on tomorrow and in the upcoming days, then looked at a tweet from -Cernovich wherein he demonstrates he has never done serious reading in the topic, and then finished up the hour looking at a key section from Carl Trueman's presentation -which we began reviewing over the past few weeks-.
Head out on Friday -I keep saying Lord willing, and I mean that-, so hopefully our next edition will be on the road, possibly on Monday. Played segments from a video from the pastor of -Zootown Church- in Missoula, Scott Klaudt where he repeated a whole string of utterly indefensible falsehoods about the Reformation, Rome, etc., and then played a brief portion of Trent Horn's second rebuttal in his debate with Gavin Ortlund on sola scriptura, looking specifically at the common error of ignoring the diversity in Rome while focusing upon it amongst -Protestants.- If you would like to help support this upcoming trip, please pray for my health -not starting off on the best foot, I have to admit-, and support the Travel Fund here. https---www.aomin.org-aoblog-support-us- Thank you-
My apologies for all the coughs and sniffs, I actually feel pretty good, but the voice and sinuses---not so much. Spent time talking about God's decree over against Provisionist palaver -look it up-, then looked at some Trent Horn material in preparation for a few weeks from now, and finished up with a real quick section from the Carl Trueman presentation, this time on -doctrinal development.-
Covered a number of topics today with a short discussion of how a small number of ne'er-do-wells can create faux controversies for not positive reason, then talked a bit about Alistair Begg's -swing and a miss- response, and then got back to Carl Trueman's speech on classical theology. An hour and fifteen minutes today.
Touched on a bunch of topics from Texas to Alistair Begg to the United Methodists at the start. Commented briefly on some miserable souls on line who want to debate about infant damnation. Then read from Nettle's fine work on Andrew Fuller and the reality of death and how it impacts us and our theological outlook, before moving briefly back to Carl Trueman's presentation that we began examining on the last DL. 90 minutes today.
Started to listen to and interact with Dr. Carl Trueman's inaugural address at the Center for Classical Theology. Got into the heart of the matter, Scripture, tradition, authority, etc., after playing a number of statements that were insightful, useful, and edifying. Will continue on Thursday-
We premiered the new video opening by Tim Bushong for Radio Free Geneva- So there is a new addition to the clips including in A Mighty Fortress, and then Jeff Durbin did the new closer about our new bunker under Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We started with a one minute video from Leighton Flowers including some of the most absurd assertions by Warren McGrew. Then we moved to an almost ten minute presentation against Calvinism by Gregory Boyd from a number of years ago.--Then right at the end, I took the time to address, briefly, the controversy that erupted yesterday over comments by Alistair Begg in an interview four months ago wherein he counseled a grandmother to attend the wedding of a grandchild -marrying- a transgender person.
Started off looking at Francis' comment that he hopes hell is empty, and what this would mean to Roman Catholic theology as a whole. Then we transitioned over a Brandan Robertson video in which he shreds the Bible into contradictory strands, something that is all too common in what is called the -Christian academy.-
After some chatter about DEI's destruction of the United States -and the West in general-, we finally dug into a Twitter thread posted by Dr. Mike Riccardi on kenoticism and what it is supposed to mean and how we are supposed to identify it. Ended up going 90 minutes as a result, but this one will be discussed for a long time. Another example of -but, we can't do theology by creating our own definitions and then reading them back into Scripture.- Important stuff, and offered with full respect for and appreciation of both Master's Seminary and Mike Riccardi.
Started off with more on the continuing developments with Francis, Fernandez, and the Roman Church, moving sort of seamlessly into -ReformedtoRome's attempt to use Acts 15 as a defeater of sola scriptura. Then we looked at some recent -Soteriology101 statements on the idea of being made -better- so as to believe in Calvinism.
Spent an hour and 15 minutes with Dr. Jeffery Johnson, President of GBTS, talking about his new book, The Revealed God -2023-. Then I responded to a tweet storm from Stephen Wolfe just this morning and talked a bit about what it means to be -truly Reformed.- An hour and 45 minutes.
Well, 2024 started out a bit rough technically speaking, but we got past that and got to a discussion of Aquinas at MBTS, Dale Tuggy and philosophical trinitarianism, and finally responses to Leighton Flowers on the will of God and the proclamation of the gospel. Ninety minutes.
Had to make brief mention of some of the big stuff happening in our day at the top of the program. Then did a quick summary of the Crusades in light of their being used by some CNs as some kind of positive thing, but then moved on into dealing with the TRBs, the Truly Reformed Baptists, and their willingness to snipe at those on the front lines from the comfort of their seminary library windows, so to speak. Went for almost 90 despite my respiratory woes -improving, but slowly-.
Under the weather still, so, had to keep the volume down a bit, but had a few advent thoughts and then looked at Nebuchadnezzar's post grass-eating restoration confession of the glory of the King of heaven, asking why Christians can't be as clear and open as he was.
Went a bit long today, but, lots to talk about, and my voice wasn't real good, so I had to slow down a bit- In any case, first hour was on the Dicastery document released yesterday that caused such a stir, then we switched over to a summary of developments over the weekend with the -Neo-Socinian- allegations. Jumbo sized program today-
Back in Phoenix in our regular studio, so we looked briefly at the racist Rutgers professor and -white folks,- then we spent about twenty minutes responding to more of Muhammed Hijab's opening statement against the Trinity, and then listened to a few minutes of the -Coffee House Sessions- webcast on the modern state of Reformed Baptist and Robert Briggs' accusation that biblicism is neo-Socinianism and that this is the reason for the division amongst real, confessional Reformed Baptists and those who just -pretend.- Sad days for the RB movement, to be sure.
Managed to do an RFG while on the road as I do long days to get home to Phoenix. Took the time to explain and refute Nick Craig's -in depth- interpretation of Ephesians that tells us that verses 3 through 12 are only about the Apostles, not about regular believers. Then we looked at little bit at Acts 13-48, and a bit at a deranged Twitter account opposed to Calvinism. Nearly 80 minutes today.
I've changed my travel plans home so I will be spending long hours in the saddle to get home a day earlier, so I wanted to finish up this response in case we are not able to sneak any programs on till late next week. Only about forty minutes today, but we finished up our review of Jared's response article, focusing on atonement and election issues. Thanks for listening-
Just a few brief comments on Catholicism at the start, then back to Hebrews and Jared's article. We are, at least, getting into the nitty gritty of what the real issues are, so, I hope that is helpful. Tomorrow is a travel day for me, so I won't be able to do another program until I am headed home next week, and those will be later in the day since I have 6- hours to drive each day.
Started off with a look at the tweet introducing an article against postmillennialism before moving back to the response to Jared Longshore based upon Hebrews and the New Covenant.
Commented on the Pope's continued promotion of the climate fraud, and his connecting it to -the culture of death,- but spent most of the time responding to Jared Longshore on the Hebrews 8 issue. Did not finish, but hope to later in the week. Asked for comments on Twitter from listeners as to whether you want more of this kind of in-depth interaction.
Schedules for all sorts of stuff today so I could only squeeze a 45 minute program on a variety of topics today from supposed foul mouths in Moscow to Calvinist derangement syndrome on Twitter.
Had to use the mobile studio today even though I am not yet on the road and...didn't really work out. Had to record it. Mainly a lengthy response to Joshua T. Charles on key and important issues relating to Roman Catholicism, claims of authority, canonicity, etc.
Though I touched briefly on a Soteriology 101 tweet at the end of the show, the vast majority was directed to responding to Joshua T. Charles and his presentation of Newman's -development hypothesis- as the answer to my Nicea question. A lot is going on in Rome these days, and we need to keep up if we wish to be good witnesses-
Spent a little over an hour with John Cooper today talking about his new book, Wimpy, Weak and Woke -available at johnlcooper.com though the Kindle is already available at Amazon-. Talked eschatology and law and culture and the future and hope and what we need to be praying for as far as mercy from God- As always a pleasure to have John on the Dividing Line-
Went for an hour and forty minutes or so and covered a lot of topics, I must confess- Mainly focused on finishing up our response to Jason Breda on John 6 and his confusion about Greek verbs, participles, tenses, you name it. Did that, and then played a clip from Frank Turek claiming Calvinism is contradictory, and then a clip where he is commenting on inerrancy as well.
Caught up on a few items on a special DL today. Read through a long message from Twitter that is a good warning about how some eschatologies can become downright dangerous, and then moved back to reviewing aspects of Muhammed Hijab's opening remarks in the Trinity-Tawhid debate.
Said more than I wanted to say about Ohio and the Papacy -will actually say more tomorrow on a special third edition of the DL for the week- at the opening, then jumped into Radio Free Geneva -about 20 minutes in- and continued our review-response of Jason Breda.
Jumbo edition of the program, basically two 45 minute segments. The first featured Jeff Durbin from his rental car in parts unknown talking with us about his work with End Abortion Now, the Ohio situation, the ERLC, and he and his wife adopting two premie baby girls. In the second I started playing Muhammad Hijab's opening comments from a 2018 debate on Trinity and Tawhid in hopes of helping folks be prepared to respond to Muslims in evangelistic settings. We will continue on future editions of the program. We hope to do two more programs this week, including another Radio Free Geneva. Make sure to download the A-O app so you will know when we will be on the air-
An hour and 45 minutes on Radio Free Geneva today, starting to look at Jason Breda's video -exegeting- John 6. Brother Breda claims to have been -a Calvinist for ten years,- and is now producing videos exposing this -lie of the enemy.- Well, he attempted to walk through John 6 -give him credit--, and we are reviewing that attempt. Had to deal with a lot of Greek today because brother Breda makes claims based upon the original language that, well, are more than just slightly fallacious. We will either do another RFG to finish up, or make it a sub-portion of a future Dividing Line.
Started off with the truth about 10-31-1517 -nobody at the time had any idea anything important had happened-, which earned me the name -Dr. Downer- from Jeff Durbin last night at church. Then we talked about the recent Synod in Rome and the truly massive implications this has for Roman claims of authority, etc. Then we addressed this article https---jaredrlongshore.com-2023-10-31-are-your-children-members-of-the-new-covenant- from Jared Longshore, posted on Reformation Day, of all days, diving into Hebrews 7 and 8 especially, dealing with this key text in the debate over Calvin's doctrine of paedobaptism. I thought we would only go 90 minutes, but we actually went past two hours by a bit-
Took two complete programs to do it, but we finished looking at Zach Lambert's sermon on -Homophobia and Transphobia,- getting to the part where the Bible finally was referred to- and twisted into a pretzel. It is truly hard to listen to -progressivists- engage in societal eisegesis, but we sure got our fill in today's 1-50 minute long program.
As promised I began playing the entirety of Zach Lambert's sermon, preached early last year, about -Homophobia and Transphobia.- He had linked to it as representative of his position, and in the opening of the sermon he says he spent more time preparing for that sermon than any other, so it seems fair to address it. It is a classic example of -cultural eisegesis,- and since it is the essence of modern -Christian- homosexual apologetics, everyone needs to learn to recognize it, and refute it. We will continue the study and response on Thursday, Lord willing- 1-55 today-
On the last program I said I hoped Doug Wilson would respond to Michael Riley's article on a Van Tillian response to Christian Nationalism, and lo and behold, he did just that. So, we took the time to look it over and comment on it. Then we looked at a Taylor Marshall tweet denying the imputed righteousness of Christ and dove into Romans 3-4 to respond.
Today we were joined by Asa Miller, former SEAL and one of the primary people in the new documentary https---youtu.be-p9euwl05sqo SEALS Beat Biden which comes out next month. We talked about a lot of things, and it was an enjoyable conversation. Then I went over Michael Riley's post https---g3min.org-not-by-what-standard-but-by-what-means- which appeared on the G3 website and I found most useful.
Given the continuing conflict in the Middle East, we looked at the comments from the head of Hamas, looked at the concept of -the world at war- and -the world at peace,- and then worked through a short clip of a Muslim debater arguing against the clarity of the Christian Scriptures. Then finished with a response to the explosion of amazing tweets and claims on Twitter since yesterday, including those saying I've been -bought off- by the -globalists- -yes, seriously, someone suggested that-.
Tale of two programs today, sort of. First 35 minutes or so were on Jeffery Riddle claiming they will be changing the NT in 200 places in the upcoming -24-25- NA29th edition, and what that is all about. Discussed ECM-CBGM, etc. For those interested in textual issues, you will enjoy that portion. Then we switched over to the -Christian Nationalism- topic prompted by a series of tweets from Doug Wilson and Owen Strachan. Gave my position very fully and then interacted with both brothers, as that always helps to clarify things. Realized after the program was over I was going to look at the article posted at G3 today that I found very interesting, but ran out of time. Tomorrow I will be joined by one of the Navy SEALS who fought against the Regime's dangerous vaccine mandates, so join us at 3pm EDT for that-
In light of recent events in Israel we took the first 55 minutes or so of the program to review issues in Islam, looking at the Qur'an and hadith to understand the animus Islam produces toward the Jews. It's been quite a while since we did any in-depth discussion of Islam, so I provided a lot of basic explanations of terms, etc. Then we moved to the events of Saturday and our 40th anniversary celebration. I played a video, and then looked at some of the pictures from our slideshow, taking a walk down memory lane. Old folks like doing things like that.
Literally five minutes before the program started The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, Third Fully Revised Edition arrived at our offices. I gave some interesting citations from it since it contains a Foreword by Pope Francis. Then we read through a report from a leftist who attended Andy Stanley's conference, and finished off with some comments in defense of presuppositionalism over against the popular attacks coming from the Thomists.
Last program from the road, should be home next week in our regular studios. Talked a bit about Doug Wilson's blog article in response to Owen Strachan, though I mostly discussed the -Memorials- issue from that article. Then I played sections from two videos from a -former Calvinist,- Jason Breda, and considered why those who leave a movement struggle to accurately represent it after the switch. We finished by looking at his wildly botched attempt to get around John 6-37.
Believe it or not, there really is a connection between all of that, and an important one. And we covered it all on an hour and 45 minute program today that was delayed 15 minutes while Rich ran around with his hair on fire finding a way to get the sound from my laptop to work- But we covered the Pope's move with reference to blessings for same-sex couples, Andy Stanley's talk to his church from Sunday morning, and Stephen Wolfe's comments as well. Enjoy-
In between getting some needed maintenance done on the truck and speaking on textual criticism tonight, James took an hour to squeeze in a show. After doing some recap on G3 he discussed his sermon from Isaiah 41 and the Sovereignty of God -in time.-
Recorded before a live audience at G3 James discusses everything from the early days of witnessing to Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Roman Catholics to more recent issues as God has blessed this work over the years.
Slightly shorter program today as I speak this evening here in PA. Discussed the upcoming debate and relevant issues, played a clip from Jesse Duplantis, and a clip from Thabiti Anyabwile as well.
Did the program live on the road from Indianapolis this evening, looking at the amazing secular tyranny in California, then a discussion of the challenges we are all facing as believers in these changing and unique times, and finishing with a look at some Taylor Marshall tweets.
Did the program from warm, wind-swept Amarillo, Texas today, discussing some comments made on the Reformed Forum first, and then switching to looking at some key aspects of Rosaria Butterfield's new book. https---www.amazon.com-Five-Lies-Our-Anti-Christian-Age-dp-1433573539
I hot footed it over here to Albuquerque this morning to be on Iron Sharpens Iron with Chris Arnzen, and so I continued the topic -since it was on my mind- on this program. Looked at 1 Cor. 6 and Romans 1 and the entire -Side A-Side B- controversy. Then briefly commented toward the end of Taylor Marshall's comment about Augustine.
Wrapping up our home stand before I head out next week with a pretty high energy program running through topics brought up on social media. We looked at how Francis is going to update his 2015 encyclical on the environment soon and asked, -If he can't see the scam of climate change, how can he have much insight at all--- We looked at a horrific Harrari tweet and a few others, then we also explained what the nice LDS home schooling mom was talking about when she talked about bringing sacred souls to earth. Finished up looking at another man-centered -and failed- attempt to get around John 6 by Soteriology 101. 75 minutes today. Right now it looks like we will be shooting to do a program from the road after I am on with Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron next Wednesday.
I hope we offered an important discussion today regarding Pope Francis, the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, the impact of leftist ideology, and the vital role of Scripture as an unchanging standard.
I started off with a few comments on the coming mask mandates, etc. Then, we took quite a variety of questions today from our callers- We discussed head coverings and Michael Heiser's odd views on 1 Cor. 11- Hebrews 1-10 and its citation of Psalm 102- angels and demons today- how to translate the Greek term ---- -thelo-- and finally a discussion of justification, confession, and the Lord's Supper.
Finished up our response to Trent Horn on the topic of theopneustos, which we began two programs ago. But, I have started reading Rosaria Butterfield's new book, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, https---www.amazon.com-Five-Lies-Our-Anti-Christian-Age-dp-1433573539 which is due to be released on September 12th, and I shared a few quotes and thoughts that are directly relevant to the debate in Manheim, PA, on September 16th.
We continued our response to and review of Trent Horn's video, here, https---youtu.be-nLX3yDgw5lk dealing with his attempt to get around the reality that he is personally not in a position to foist a novel definition upon the entire Church, let alone to call it the -death knell- of sola scriptura.
Went just over 90 minutes today. The first quarter hour we talked briefly about dying Bible pages -showed off my recent examples- and the descent of the US into true banana republic status. Then we launched into Trent Horn's response to me on theopneustos, getting into a wide variety of topics such as church history, lexicography, and the like. We will continue our response on Thursday-
Started off showing my newly -dyed- Bible texts, following the process laid out by Jeffery Rice in this video, and then took calls on Rushdooney, Alma Allred -Mormonism-, recognizing novel and soon to be abandoned ideas in theology, wokeness in the Assemblies of God, and dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses on the eternality of Jesus.
Looked at two different sets of arguments against Calvinism today, first from Brian of Faith on Fire on YouTube, then back to Leighton Flowers on John 6-44. Enjoy-
Ninety minutes in the big studio today using the big board to look at some important topics. Started off with a little KJV Only silliness, then a little TR-Only silliness, and then on to comments made by IRBC pastor Steve Meister on Josh Sommer's program about biblicism being the -road to Rome.- Having corrected that idea, we moved into the topic of Bible translation and the topic of semantic domains, hapax legomenoi, etc.
Was joined by Pastor Jason Wallace for about forty minutes to talk about the new video he has produced, The Failure of Eastern Orthodoxy. Then Pastor Tobias Riemenschneider joined us from Germany to talk about his new book, Resisting Tyranny. Then I took a while to look at the arrests of Christians outside a sexual perversion event in Watertown, Wisconsin.
Other than discussing some upcoming events -such as the debate in Pennsylvania-, we took some time to listen to some voices from the past -Chrysostom, Jerome- and think about how things have changed. We also took some time to consider the definition of biblicism in the current controversy.
Last Road Trip Dividing Line for the July, 2023 trip -only a matter of weeks till we head for Pennsylvania and then G3-. Live stream failed us -I have no idea why--. Talked a bit about this new video on Eastern Orthodoxy from Jason Wallace up in Magna, Utah, discussed the assertion that biblicism is -cultic- -and the obvious need for far more concern about accuracy in defining that noble term- and then started listening to Dale Tuggy defining his brand of unitarianism in his dialogue with William Lane Craig. So, back into the furnace for me tomorrow -it hit 119 in Phoenix today--
Had a few technical issues today to be sure, but we soldiered on, looking at our new search engine which allows you to look for words and phrases in ALL of the Dividing Lines since 1998- Twenty five years worth -over 2,000 episodes-. Pretty amazing stuff. Then we looked at a few comments from ol' Steve Camp, a few more Unitarian comments, and finished up looking at Revelation 5 and the Lamb.
So Rich was literally just poking around on Twitter when he stumbled across the -live- set up recently, so today was our first day to live-cast on Twitter. That was what we wanted to do all along, but obviously things are developing at Twitter and so we had to use Facebook -which drove me nuts-. But, for as long as we can, we will use Twitter for our live streaming.--Today we announced some upcoming debates, specifically a series of debates in February that should have something for everyone- I then went over an odd, out-of-place diatribe against -Biblicism- found in Matthew Barrett's new book. If the rest of the 900 page monster is of similar nature, to use Luther's language, the book will be a -right strawy epistle.- We worked through the entire section asking the important questions and truly wondering what the answers will be. Then I responded to Steve Camp's recent Twitter claim that all PTs -postmillennial theonomists- -mistranslate- Matthew 28-19-20. Ninety minutes today-
Started off today's program talking about upcoming debates. Unfortunately, during the program itself, Chris Arnzen got word that Dr. Brownson will not be pursuing the debate on the 16th of September. However, we have another opponent lined up and will be able to give you information on that in a few days.--Spent a while responding to portions of a Trent Horn video on ----------- and elements of the common Catholic Answers approach to denying sola scriptura. Then we moved to a number of tweets by Unitarians, finishing up looking at John's use of ----- -----. Right at ninety minutes today- Enjoy-
Managed a solid live stream today, thankfully- Started off with an amazing example of -no, we haven't hit rock bottom quite yet, but man we are digging hard- as far as the evil of man is concerned. Then we looked at Stephen Wolfe's comments in response to Mark Dever on paedobaptism and a regenerate church membership. Finished up looking at the rhetoric of one Anthony Bernabei, a wild-eyed unitarian whose immaturity precludes him from serious consideration, but yet he provided a useful example of unitarian deception that allowed us to dig deeply into John 17 and 1 Corinthians 8. 75 minutes today-
The first 35 minutes or so of today's program focused on the Miss Universe results in the Netherlands, where a highly unattractive dude beat out some absolutely stunning women, all in the service to the dismantling of the West. Then we looked at pure, unhidden, unapologetic propaganda from an ABC affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky. Then we switched over to an analysis of 1 Peter 3-14-15 and the citation of Isaiah 8-12-13 therein, considering issues related to -inter-textuality- and the identification of Jesus as Yahweh incarnate.
I did not feel well today, but I pressed on, because I really wanted to share this study of Jude 5, CBGM, the variant in the text, and the biblical tapestry of phraseology and teaching that consistently testifies to the deity of Christ. Please get a deep seat, take some notes, and enjoy-
Made it through a few thunderstorms during the show today focusing on unitarianism, the Christian Shema in 1 Corinthians 8, and the testimony of Ignatius to not only the deity of Christ, but the two natures of Christ as well.
Had to record the program today due to the location I am at in Santa Fe -possibly due to weather issues as well, not completely sure-. Talked about the Australian legislation being proposed to give the state pretty much full control over speech and how we have taken our eyes off the ball as the totalitarians continue their global march. Then we switched over to a discussion that took place last year between William Lane Craig and unitarian Dale Tuggy https---youtu.be-W-2yIIb9YCo. We will be doing a deep dive on Tuggy's claims and positions over the next number of weeks and months. You might want to familiarize yourself with his views- You might also want to see Michael Brown's debate with Tuggy here https---youtu.be-Oi300-FvFz0 , and Chris Date's interaction here https---youtu.be-c35-uFjEbx8 .
Started off with stories about California and Michigan pressing the woke gender ideology that is a plague upon us all. Then, finally, as promised almost two weeks ago, I got to Leighton Flowers and his -Calvinists cannot answer Colossians 2-12- argument and discovered that in fact it seems it is the Provisionists who have to struggle with that particular text. Next week we are back on the road once again, so prayers for traveling mercies and physical strength and health are most desired and appreciated-
Went in the big studio today to talk about Mormonism and the challenges we face today in seeking to witness of the truth to members of the LDS Church. Did a good bit of reminiscing along the path, since the first books I read and studied from the LDS Church were purchased 41 years ago now. Had them in studio as well-
Our main discussion today was based upon Pope Francis' kind letter to Fr. Martin and the LGBTQ folks meeting tomorrow at Fordham University. What does this letter mean, and where is Rome really going today-- The alleged -certainty- that flows from the claim of Papal authority is a two-edged sword that really ends up showing us that Rome's -constancy- is a myth. It cannot be maintained. Spent a good bit of time talking about his death penalty stance as well as an illustration. Just over an hour. -Please note- I got so involved with the capital punishment discussion I completely forgot that we needed to get to Leighton Flowers and Colossians 2-12. Next time--
Talked about a lot of topics again, from Harari's -AI can write a true Bible- to an atheist saying Augustine inserted the Trinity at the Council of Nicea to transgender insanity and finishing up with developments at the Southern Baptist Convention.
I ran everything myself today, so even I am interested in how it turned out- Covered a lot of current events driven topics, which, being June, included a lot of cultural stuff, the sufficiency of Scripture, legal cases, the SBC, that kind of stuff. Touched lightly on eschatology, law, etc. Just over an hour in length.
It is very sad that the the Church does not speak with a unified voice in the modern world. Yet it remains our duty to think through, as Christians, the key issues we are facing in this world gone insane with its destructive rebellion. Today we looked at the comparison of a progressivist, -liberal- view on homosexuality with the comments of Russell Moore on the Ugandan law prohibiting homosexuality.
Started off with some thoughts on Ted Cruz's tweet https---twitter.com-tedcruz-status-1663200925018726407--s-20 about Uganda and Charlie Kirk's comments https---twitter.com-TerriGreenUSA-status-1663350223337402369--s-20 about conservatism. What are we supposed to be conserving if such basic, foundational truths as family and marriage are negotiable-- Then we looked at an article Catholic Answers published https---www.catholic.com-magazine-print-edition-the-white-question last year in response to the -White Question- and then finished up talking about debates -as a long thread had developed in Twitter on the topic-.
A potpourri of topics for our last DL in studio for most of April. Had a little something for the homeschoolers about Pluto's age, some commentary on the acquittal of the Lutheran Christians in Finland, a good deal on today's call by the Biden Regime for surgery for -transgender children,- etc. Then we transitioned into a theological discussion based upon Dr. Waldron's fine essay, posted today, on sola scriptura and the Confession. Finally, if you would like to help with the trip I begin on Monday, remember you can give to the travel fund.
Covered a number of topics playing off of comments made by Brandan Robertson regarding the resurrection, the Bible, etc. We then talked a little bit about the discovery of an exceptionally ancient inscription in Israel that is highly relevant, and finished up looking at some quotes from Klaus Schwab's chief scientific advisor, Yuvul Noah Harari.
The rush of insane -believe this mass delusion or we will silence you-- stuff going on in our world caused me to reflect on the question, -are ancient writings really able to equip us to deal with modern challenges-- You will have to listen to discover the answer-
Reflected on the shelling of the Irpin Biblical Seminary as I taught within its walls a number of times, so seeing it on fire from Russian shelling was saddening indeed. Then we discussed the current issues relating the to Culture of Death and its promotion of homosexuality, transgenderism, etc.
I was joined in studio by Daniel Constantino and Oscar Dunlap to discuss their debate with two LDS representatives a few weeks ago at Apologia Church. Goodness, how Mormonism has changed- Almost 90 minutes of discussion, even though I was not able to play much of the debate due to a technical problem with how my computer was connected to the system -sorry about that--.
Talked a bit about a few current events at the start -played video from Mars, for example-, but the focus today was on sola scriptura, what it means, why it is central, and why I am simply stunned to see men I used to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with using the phrase as a throw-away joke line on Twitter. Please listen and consider well-
G3 National 2021 Conference, Atlanta, Georgia-Question and Answer Session-The second Q-A session was moderated by Scott Aniol w- Conrad Mbewe, James White, Virgil Walker, Darrell Harrison, Hensworth Jonas, Nathan Busenitz, and Phil Johnson
Talked a bit about current events amongst the Southern Baptists, including the vicious attacks from -deconstructed- Baptists -i.e., apostates-. We discussed another confusing tweet from Tim Keller, and then I took the time to back up and re-do the discussion on John 6 from the last program. Much clearer, organized, and understandable this time- No technical juggling this time around-
Started with a few thoughts on the craziness of the world today and how difficult it is to remain focused with the rush of news, war, etc. Then I started responding to some more of the Pallmann-Hess review, trying to use both my Audio Notetaker program -which we have been fighting recently with sound issues- and Accordance. And though it worked well, toward the end I lost my place in moving from the laptop to the board and errantly moved to the wrong line, even circling a finite verb and calling it a participle -which was, I think, on the next line, or just below, in a very similar form-. Had to back up and do some scrolling to get back to where we needed to be. My apologies for that. We are trying to find a way to get past the -you can only control on the laptop but not on the screen- issue, but having just installed a new program I can tell you---it did nothing. But, worth pressing forward.
Started off with a few comments regarding some of the response to Tuesday's program regarding Thomism, including a thread by Danny Slavich. Then we listened to key elements of a webcast promoting TR Onlyism from Greenville Presbyterian Seminary and, yes, we made sure to play the part where at the beginning they indicated that the Seminary does not take a specific position on the textual question at hand -though, I confess, I did comment on how that seems to be a hard stance to take-. Went long today as we looked at John 1-18, 1 Timothy 3-16, etc. Almost a full mega edition today, so enjoy it, DL truckers-
Should evangelicals really agree with about 88- of Thomas Aquinas' Summa- Well, that is what was claimed in a recent article in the Master's Seminary Journal, so today we tackled that subject, hopefully in a respectful and brotherly fashion. I had intended to get to the Hess-Pallmann pseudo-review, but will have to hold that off till the next program. I should have realized this topic would take too long- But, hopefully, a lot to think about today.
I tried to stay within an hour -I was doing an interview immediately after the program- but I went a little long. We responded to this thread from Christian rapper Flame on Romans 9 and his movement away from Calvinism. We read the thread, commented, and then went to the text once again, this time using our Flip board. I think it may be the first time we've gone over Romans 9 in the new studio. Hope it is helpful-
Yeah, good luck figuring out that title- Covered a lot on a 100 minute program today, from scientism to the Pullmann-Hess debacle back to Aquinas and the Baptists and finishing up with the -Mt. Carmel Challenge.- We definitely covered the waterfront today-
James White debates Tim Stratton in Houston Texas on the topic of Molinism.--In this fast paced debate Molinism is put -center stage- but instead we quickly find Calvinism, --White's view--, under attack by Dr. Stratton. Pay close attention to which debater has what burden and how they prosecute it. The cross examination portion of this took a turn that I don't recall having seen before. Remember, the questioner is bound by rule to ask questions only and not make statements. I watched in amazement as this portion unfolded. - Rich
Our first road trip version of Radio Free Geneva- I guess we could have done it on the program yesterday, too, but I did not think of it till I was driving today. So I had forgotten to deal with an important part of Tim Stratton's presentation yesterday, so I wanted to get to that, and there were some developments today we mentioned as well. Once we finished that material, I moved to looking at some comments from David Pallmann and Will Hess in their ostensible -review- of The Potter's Freedom, focusing upon some more errors regarding the over-all context as well as Hess' denial of Penal Substitutionary Atonement -I could not tell whether Pallmann likewise denies PSA-. Went just over an hour today, enjoy-
Out in the middle of Texas somewhere near I-10 at a pretty nice little RV park -it is a former KOA, but now has a nice little cafe that just provided me with a very tasty, fresh cheeseburger- that I will definitely visit again in the future. I pushed myself to get here in time to do a DL and comment on Friday's debate with Tim Stratton. We went over a number of items, though as I was sitting here I remembered a key issue I neglected to comment on, and hopefully will do so tomorrow, assuming travel goes well. Then I briefly commented on the first few items raised by Will Hess and David Pallmann in their review of The Potter's Freedom. To put it mildly, these men really need to rethink their approach. More to come-
Yet another Road Trip Dividing Line, of course, this time looking at a clip of Ed Shaw on how his homosexuality has made him -more like Jesus,- a quick listen to the opening of a -book review- of the -low hanging fruit- book called The Potter's Freedom, a quick response to Leighton Flowers thinking that there is no difference between believing 2-2-4 and believing -Jesus Christ is the Son of God,- finishing up with a quick run through of John 8-31-47.
I'm settled into a quiet nook of the woods in East Texas right now, so we did a program that touched on developments in the covid insanity, provided a response on -contextualization- regarding Dr. Keller, and finished with some thoughts focused on Paul's words in 2 Timothy 2-10.
I finished six hours of lecture and immediately set up to do a DL in the lovely library area of Grace Bible Theological Seminary and was kindly joined by President Jeffrey Johnson and by Provost Owen Strachan to talk theology and a little history as well-
Evanescent is not a common term in our language today, but it is being used as a means of attacking Reformed theology, and today we dove into Matthew 13 to address the issue, live from outside Conway, Arkansas. We are hoping to do another program tomorrow from Grace Bible Theological Seminary, but we haven't tested things yet, so, we will see-
Evidently a big winter storm is heading my way, but we got a program in anyway, discussing my recent defense of Greg Bahnsen, attacks on religious freedom, and an article on Irenaeus' view of -apostolic tradition-. We finished up with a discussion from Isaiah 10 and the freedom and power of God in history. We will try again tomorrow-
Started off with a little report on the desert rat traveling in sub-freezing weather, then discussed such things as Joe Rogan, Provisionism, guys pretending to be gals, Biden's inevitable ultra-leftist SCOTUS appointment and the danger of self-driving cars. Quite a range of things-
Greetings from cold Springfield, Missouri- A road-trip edition of the Dividing Line as I caught a part of the Hughes-Flowers debate on John 6-44. Had to point out the basic error in Flowers' approach, though we will do much more on that when I can download the video. Then we listened to a recent statement by Jordan Peterson on the Bible that has many of us hoping the Lord is working in his life and mind.
So we webcast on two platforms now- YouTube and Odysee. We have freedom to talk about vaccines, Covid, mandates, and the outrageous behavior of the left, while on Odysee, but not on YouTube, which censors anyone who would talk about those things from the -wrong- viewpoint. This means I no longer really have the freedom to do a few stories on this topic, then do a Bible study on another issues, all in the same program. Instead, I have begun to save up articles and issues and have to roll them all into one program, like today. So we revisited the past week's worth of craziness, from Novak Djokovic and his horrific mistreatment by the thuggish tyrants of the Australian regime, to new data on the now utterly worthless vaccines, to the open letter from the Israeli immunologist basically saying, -We told you so-when will you finally admit the failure of your approach-- Next program we will go back to primarily theological topics, start piling up the others, etc. Enjoy-
Well, I did say it would be an experiment, and, well, it was a failed experiment. I thought it would be cool to let folks get in touch via Zoom and ask about a textual variant they particular are interested in. I get folks contacting me privately about things like that all the time. So, we fired stuff up, opened the Zoom room up and-got clobbered with teens playing games. Couldn't get a single person lined up with a serious question. So, I threw it open to the Twitterverse and we only got one or two requests. So, I filled with information about how we examine variants, looking mainly at Mark 1-1, 1-2, and John 5-3-4. So, hopefully that will be helpful for a few folks, but other than that, I need to go wash the soot off my clothes from the ashes of the program and get ready to press on-
Did the program on Odysee today so I could talk freely about all the developments over the past week or so regarding vaccine mandates and the admission on the part of so many that pretty much everything we were saying in the middle of 2020 onward was, in fact, correct, despite the charges of -conspiracy theories- and the like. Then we transitioned over to the -big board- to look at two texts, 1 Corinthians 10-13 -is it a proof text for libertarian free will-- and John 12-32 -does it say that all humans, universally, and individually, are drawn to Jesus by the cross--.
Sorry for those who aren't overly excited about internal Reformed Baptist issues, but I said a few weeks ago that I would engage Dr. Dolezal's biblical evidence for the doctrine of divine simplicity -DDS- and today I did so. Went just over an hour and a half, but hope that the discussion was useful.
I chose to provide two responses on the program today, hoping that both would provide opportunities for teaching and, by refutation, edification of the saints. The first, which took up most of our time, was a response to about ten relevant points -and those were about all- in the 2 hour, 45 minute video posted recently from Tim Stratton and Tyson James responding to my reply to James' article on Psalm 33. Though there was nothing of substance as to the exegesis of Psalm 33 provided, a few other comments were worthy of response. Both John 6 and Acts 4-27-28 were cited, which is why we did yesterday's program. Upon completing that marathon, I responded to an ostensible -book review- written by Dr. Jamin H-bner, a former student and friend, published last year. It is a glowing example of -woke penance,- and as such stands as a warning to us all. The A-O truck drivers and uber-long commuters will love this one, as it weighs in at a hefty 2 hours and ten minutes-
Tomorrow I will be doing responses to critiques so I wanted to start off the year with a more positive presentation based upon going in-depth into the Scriptures, something I know most in our audience really enjoys and benefits from. I would have to deal with these texts in the context of my response tomorrow, so this way we can keep the replies from becoming massively long. Enjoy-
I was literally on my way to the office to do a remote DL in the old studio, something we have done four or five times now, when I texted Rich and asked, -I know this is crazy but-any way we could use the big studio and the Flip board remotely-- And we made it work- Kudos to Rich- Now if we could just learn to do the DL without the ugly old dumb Scottish guy- So anyway, the topic- Yes, we dove into Exodus 3-14 and did some old-fashioned inter-textual study today at the start, and then moved into a discussion of the simplicity controversy, finishing with playing a segment from a Sinclair Ferguson sermon from -I believe- 2015. If you wish to end 2021 with some deep consideration of important issues, we hope this blesses you- See you in 2022-
looking at the Ruckman-esque behavior of one Cody Zorn, a KJV pastor down in Georgia. Then we did a major shift in direction and did a full hour lecture on theology, Scripture, and how we define our faith. We eventually touched on Calvin, natural theology, and the current controversy over the definition of -divine simplicity.- Another program to keep the A-O truckers happy
Dr. Joe Boot of the Ezra Institute in Canada joined me for a powerful hour of discussion about the recently passed bill in Canada, C4, which bans -conversion therapy.- It is, in reality, a ban on any speech or counsel that would assist a person who is seeking to live in accordance with God's ways who wishes to be delivered from homosexuality or transgenderism. It is a thoroughly theological law based upon rebellion against God. It goes into effect around January 8th, so Dr. Boot and others in Canada are asking all faithful churches to join them in standing against this godless attack upon the faith. Click here to read about Biblical Sexuality Sermon Sunday and how your fellowship can participate- We then took a brief break and came back for the second half -see next blog entry--.
In the second part of today's program I dove into a response Tyson James wrote -James works for Reasonable Faith- more than three years ago to comments I made from Psalm 33 relating to Molinism way back in May of 2014. So we dove back into the topic, and will finish off our response on Thursday's program.
Recently Kevin Harris led William Lane Craig through a brief review of our discussion on Calvinism and Molinism on the Reasonable Faith podcast. It presented a great opportunity to highlight once again not only plethora of strawmen being burned with Molinist matches on the Internet these days, but it gave us the opportunity to delve into 1 Corinthians 3 and Isaiah 43 to demonstrate again the richness that comes from biblically based theology over against philosophically based speculations. Get a deep seat, this one goes just over two hours in length- Enjoy-
Started off with the great video that came out today, -The Essence of James White,- a wonderfully done little lark from the joke Justin Brierley made during the William Lane Craig discussion. Then we went with all that stuff that you can't talk about on YouTube, if you know what I mean- you know, the failed vaccines and the Omicron scare, etc. Then we shifted to theology and talked a bit about the discussion on divine simplicity, the role of natural theology, etc., going on in conservative Reformed circles right now. Then we looked at Tim Stratton's -EDD- argument, the idea that if you believe in -Exhaustive Divine Determinism- then you are left with -a god of deceit- who forces you to believe wrong things and therefore you can never know when you believe true things. We compared this silly philosophical trick with the Biblical perspective. Went just over 90 minutes today-
Well, I really was not trying to make today's program a pre-view of what is upcoming for my students when teaching Church History and Apologetics, but, we did cover that area. First portion of the program was a bit -in house,- discussing the rise of Thomism in the midst of Reformed Baptists, so that some are accusing myself and Jeff Johnson and Owen Strachan of -heterodoxy- based upon their extremely narrow positions. Then we moved on to responding to arguments made by Tim Stratton and Tyson James, two Molinist proponents, focusing upon Stratton's reading of a single paragraph from Calvin and the concept of God as -the author of evil.- Pointed argumentation to be sure. An hour and forty-five minutes in length.
Started off welcoming Dr. Owen Strachan, Provost and Research Professor of Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary who announced my appointment as Professor of Church History and Apologetics at the school. I am deeply honored to fulfill this calling in teaching a subject that has been my work for nearly four decades now. I truly pray the Lord will bless GBTS and its work in equipping men to the work of edifying the body of Christ in these challenging times. I had thought we would only have Dr. Strachan on for a few minutes but, I was foolish, and we went a full half hour. So in the last portion I addressed a new paper that appeared today that says what I had predicted weeks ago- the selection pressure that is driving mutations in covid are coming from the leaky, poorly thought out, ineffective -vaccines,- not from the -unvaccinated.-
It was nice not to have to run a -words you can't say in 2021 in the US- filter today as we were not live streaming on YouTube. Discussed the spike protein, selection pressure, Fauci's constant lies, etc., as the Omicron Craze sweeps the nation. Briefly commented on the oral arguments from yesterday on the SC abortion case, was dragged off to briefly remind us of why TR Onlyism is a dead end by a Twitter message from Kofi, and finally dug into my response to Dr. Tim Stratton on the central claim of Molinism. Almost two hours-
Two topics on the program today. Started off with a discussion of Kristin Kobes du Mez, a professor of history -yay-- and gender studies -seriously-- at Calvin University, that once bastion of Reformed thought that has moved from Reformed to Deformed in just a matter of decades. She wrote the Jesus and John Wayne book, if you are wondering. Then we moved back to the Molinism topic because, well, we have to- Just did the debate and I can guarantee you, all our Molinist friends will be in a frenzy for a while, so I want to make sure the conversations stay centered on what really matters. So get a deep seat and make sure you are ready for all the chatter that will be appearing, especially this coming Friday when the Unbelievable episode airs featuring my discussion with William Lane Craig.
Did a quick -45 minute- episode today to do a post discussion-debate review of my encounter with William Lane Craig on Justin Brierley's Unbelievable program that we recorded just today -in fact, the DL aired less than 30 minutes after we concluded-. I explained why I had not publicly discussed the upcoming encounter, went over some of the key issues to listen for when it airs -I think on Friday-, etc. We plan on being back again tomorrow for a regular episode-
First program after having our first episode taken down by Big Brother's minions in Big Tech. Discussed how we will respond to that and then went into why I am even here -I was supposed to be on the road today, beginning a three week trip- and how we will be rescheduling things in January and February. Then we went into a fairly lengthy discussion about the Papacy in light of Francis and his obvious variation from those who have come before him.
First half hour was on how lies, when they are repeated, take on a life of their own, and destroy everything that is good. Then we listened to William Lane Craig debating Paul Helm and keyed in on the central issue of Molinism, the fact that subjunctive conditionals exist and they do so outside of God's control. And today we got into more of a theological aspect of seeing how Molinism engages other elements of theology -such as sin, regeneration, etc.-.
Spent the first twenty minutes responding to the excitement on Twitter yesterday when James Lindsay made reference to John 1-1. Then we took calls on baptism, whether it is James or Jacob in the New Testament, the vaccine mandates and the military, and church membership when you are Reformed and your church isn't.
Quite a range today- Lots of stuff about leaky vaccines, mandates, and the New Austrian Gestapo strolling through the streets of Austria saying, -Your papers, please-- It's like no one reads books anymore. Then we looked at the contrast between the Chinese changing history and Isaiah telling us history is meaningful because God is its author. Then we dove into the Hebrew text for a while today, looking at Psalm 12 and what the -words of Yahweh- refer to in that Psalm, and then looking at the history of Psalm 110 in reference to Jewish apologists and unitarians as well. An hour and 15 minutes, but I'm sure the Dividing Line Highlights guys will chop her up for those with less time-
Started off with a few minutes about the facts regarding the Kamala Cookies -forced vaccine mandates- and the reality that billions of dollars will buy you tons of lies. Then we moved back into reading and interacting with Dr. William Lane Craig's presentation of middle knowledge and Molinism in his book, The Only Wise God.
Well, let me tell you, Rich is one happy camper. He got the bright idea today, really only a few hours before we started, to use Zoom to allow folks to call in to the program today. And-it worked. So I started off with about 20 minutes or so in response to a King James Only advocate giving a completely fictitious history of the TR and the KJV, and then we dove into the calls, both from landlines as well as Zoom. And man did we cover the topics- Colossians 2 and baptism related to the Church of Christ- Synoptic Christology- why Chris Hohnholz is a secret Elf fan- tips for doing street evangelism with tracts- importance of church history- the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis- responding to common KJV Only claims, and finally a call on dispensationalism and the kingship of Jesus. Wow- Well, given how pleased Rich is, I can tell we will be doing that again, and Rich thinks we could actually pull it off in the big studio, which might allow me to put stuff up on the board in providing answers. We will see- Thanks to everyone who participated-
OK, we covered the waterfront again today- Let's see, started off with a response to some immature bullying on Twitter, and then moved on to this important and dangerous study regarding vaccines and the spike protein and the long-term degradation of the health and immunity that can result from that spoke protein. Then we moved into a completely different area, responding to this article in the Aquila Report promoting TR Onlyism. Finally, we moved back to our reading through William Lane Craig's presentation of Molinism and middle knowledge in The Only Wise God. A full show that went well over 90 minutes- Enjoy-
Started off with a few minutes on another example of how fear and panic has molded the minds of people in the West since the beginning of 2020, and then transitioned into some more in-depth discussion about God's decree and His knowledge. This then allowed us to talk about the concept of -middle knowledge- and its role in the Counter-Reformation, and in synergism to this day.
Covered a wide variety of topics, starting off with a little information about our next trip -which you can help with here if you feel led to do so-- and then diving into current events focusing upon the rise of the Culture of Death. We looked at the new PCUSA -Climate- hymn, at the explosion of celebrations of perversity, the FDA's sell out on child experimentation, etc.
An intense teaching program today looking at Psalm 2, Job 23, and Ephesians 1, before looking at comments made by Dr. William Lane Craig in his book, The Only Wise God. Almost 80 minutes in length.
Well, it was actually OVER two hours long, and I still did not finish up, but we made good progress. First I responded to Evangelist Ted Alexander's comments wherein he not only identified Reformed theology as fundamentally Roman Catholic, but said I am a Catholic, and a plant in the church, etc. and etc. So, we demonstrated he is suffering from some serious cognitive dissonance to be sure. After that full refutation of his claims we moved back to Leighton Flowers and moved into the section where he proves, repeatedly that Provisionism has not efficacious grace. He has passive, powerless, unintentional provisions, but no powerful, purposeful, intentional grace. We will finish up our response to him later, but may not dedicate an entire episode of RFG to it, we will see.
Since we are doing a major length Radio Free Geneva tomorrow, I needed to -clear the table- of the topics that have been piling up in my topics list. So we really covered the gamut, starting off with my thanks for having shared a great time with Skillet as they visited Phoenix last Friday. WE discussed the veneration of vaccines, the hubris of a Canadian judge in demanding that preachers include Big Brother's narrative in their sermons, and the hypocrisy of the ACLU. We noted the announced release of a new anti-Calvinism book from David Allen and Steve Lemke, and then we looked at a flyer advertising an upcoming event at the Metropolitan Tabernacle featuring Jeff Riddle promoting TR Onlyism. Finally we looked at a textual variant at John 9-38
First half hour was on a variety of topics, including upcoming trips -and an invitation for you to send your church's contact information to roadtrip-aomin.org- and a little on Thomas Aquinas. But then we went into the historical argumentation regarding the perpetual virginity of Mary as it was presented in this video demonstrating that, in essence, anything can be proven by using this form of argumentation. Instead, we went into the Scriptures, started at the foundation, and moved up from there. Hopefully will be helpful in identifying other specious forms of argumentation as well.
Covered a range of items today but mainly looked at comments from the Provisionists on the nature of grace, and then looked at a defense of the new -Reformed Thomism- as well. Went nearly 80 minutes.
I'm sort of in El Paso -but not quite-, with one more stop tomorrow night before I get home. I was going to hoof it straight from here, as it is surely do-able, but the long, long hours are piling up after more than two weeks, so safety suggested stopping at an RV park I know halfway home tomorrow. Anyway, discussed cooking on the program today, specifically, Joe's cookies, you know, the ones he INSISTS you take if you want to work, etc.- Yeah, those cookies. Read a truly important thread from a person in Lithuania about the Covid Pass insanity there, and across Europe. Took the time to thank folks for their support of A-O over the years, then finished up looking at a few comments from Evangelist Ted Alexander, who was promoting KJV Only myths.
I'm in Lindale, Texas with the well known Troublemaker of the same area, Tom Buck, so we talked about...lots of stuff, from SBC stuff, G3, the future, you name it. Hopefully our discussions will be edifying to those facing many of the same challenges we are.
James and I sat down at the AOMin booth at G3 today and recorded a very special Dividing Line in front of a live audience. James discussed more of the current events in the news, the travel schedule progress and even some CBGM discussion. We even took some questions from the audience. Enjoy.
The second evening of the mini Conference on the solas is just 90 minutes away so we snuck a quick program from the AO Mobile Command in talking about the trip, what's coming up at G3 and elsewhere, and responding to Soteriology 101's paid advertising campaign looking to get -converts from Calvinism.- I wandered all over the landscape, to be honest, so fasten your seat belt-
We chose to record today's DL just in case the connection went wonky and broke up. But, it didn't, and we managed to get about 70 minutes in today, mainly on two topics -with a brief trip report at the start-. First, we discussed William Lane Craig, his views on Adam, and why this is pretty much just par for the course given the long interaction we have had with Dr. Craig's foundational positions. Then we addressed the baptism debate, raging yet once again due to Jared Longshore's departure from Founders due to his embracing of paedobaptism. Hopefully balanced and useful observations of the key issues in the debate, at least as the debate rages between Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. I think that debate is very, very different than the debate with, for example, Lutherans on the same topic.
Stumbled on a Soteriology 101 video asking if I am -right- about Matthew 23-37, so we dealt pretty fully with that new presentation for the first ninety minutes, then touched upon some other topics including Bart Barber's amazing defense of Ed Litton. Mega edition, two full hours- I head out on Road Trip -2, heading for G3, so programs for the next three weeks will be at odd times, so download the A-O App so you can know when we will be hitting the airwaves-
Third show of the week as we are preparing for the start of Road Trip -2 next week. Started off with some complicated stuff about ADE and mRNA vaccines and the dangerous rise in cases and infections amongst the vaccinated and why this is taking place. Then we, reluctantly, dealt with the Litton affair again, pointing out the utter absurdity of the defenses and excuses that are being offered by an entire cadre of paid apologists-paid for with the funds given by churches ostensibly to promote the gospel and the kingdom. The SBC deep state is alive and well and not really hiding much either. Then we went back to Hank Hanegraaff on the topic of the eucharist in the early church to finish off the program.--Of course, we will be doing our level best to do as many programs as I can possibly fit into my travel schedule beginning next week- I truly enjoyed doing programs from our mobile command center in various locations a few weeks ago, and now as I head for Conway, Atlanta, Niceville, Lindale and other places, I am looking forward to it again- Prayers for safe travel much appreciated- This trip logs in at 4,100 miles. When you contribute to the Travel Fund you are helping make it all happen- Thank you-
Mainly addressed three topics today, Ed Litton's egregious excuses for his plagiarism publicly promulgated at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Todd Friel's argument against seeing Romans 13 as having a basis in God's law and definitions, and finally a few more minutes examining Hank Hanegraaff's claims about church history.
After noting the passing, on the same weekend, of two of my former debate opponents -John Shelby Spong and Bob Enyart-, we dove into this presentation by three Church of Christ gentlemen on the subject of -total depravity.- We covered a lot of ground and hopefully you will be aided by the discussion- We hope to do another program tomorrow as well.
Split the show in two, first half hour dealing with religious exemptions, the ERLC article on the topic, vaxxonlyism and the carnage it has produced, etc. Then switched to responding to claims made by Hank Hanegraaff, the former Bible Answer Man, regarding church history. Included a short five minute sermon for us all at the end-
I do not know how to title a wide ranging program like today's- We discussed the Buttigieg adoption scandal, Jory Micah's racism, the amazing crash of Ivermectin from 2015 Nobel Prize winning drug to 2021 horse-dewormer, and then a lengthy discussion of medical exemptions, including the statement Apologia Church has produced on the topic. I also read through an attack upon Christian conscience on the topic and responded to its many errors.
Started off with a great thread from Twitter on how abortion is the sacrament of the great religion of the State in light of the Texas abortion law and the responses from the left. Then we talked about unitarianism as a lead-in to the appointment of an atheist as the chief chaplain at Harvard -there is an historical connection-, and finished up looking at the Ezekiel Declaration from Australia.
The ECM volumes of Mark arrived ten minutes before the program started, so that sort of distracted me, so I spent some time talking textual issues, CBGM, etc., before moving to the Mormons and their fear of Covid. Talked a bit about the overwhelming flood of negative information and how we need to protect our joy from the corrosive influence of today's context. Then we finished up Gregory's confession from 265.
Not sure it was fair I had to compete with the President's speech -which a friend described as a sleepy grandpa trying to talk at 2am-, but we covered some neat upcoming events -mainly on the trip to and from G3-, talked about some fundamental and foundational issues relating to Romans 13, and finished up looking at a flurry of new studies and papers related to the ongoing politicization of the Covid 19 story.
We were joined by Nathan Cravatt who did a King James Bible debate a few weeks ago, deep in the heart of KJVO country. We discussed his background and how the debate went, and played and discussed some clips as well. Nearly 75 minutes of helpful discussion especially if you have fundamentalist friends caught up in the KJV Only movement.
Reported a bit more on the Road Trip, including playing a song we learned during the conference in Idaho -it's a right catchy tune that works real well if you have a peg leg and a hook hand-, commented on the FDA approving vaccines for last year's virus at warp speed, and finally listened to the now infamous Todd Friel statement about wearing pinwheels to Publix as long as the government tells you to do so because...Romans 13- What ever happened to that -minister of God for good to you- part-
No, Pete Buttigieg does not have a husband, and no, he and that other guy cannot become parents. And that embarrassing situation is directly connected to the fall of Kabul, and we explained by at the start of the program today. Then we talked vaccine mandates and what they are really all about, before jumping back into Surah 4-171 and really digging into the Islamic topic once again. Thanks for making these programs possible as you support the Travel Fund and A-O in general-
Considered the implications of the rapid fall of Afghanistan back into the control of the Taliban at the start of the program, then gave a report from my time in Moscow at the Grace Agenda Conference, NSA Commencement, and preaching at Christ Church. Then looked a bit at the release of Mark in the ECM and the release of the CBGM modules, along with the reading at Mark 1-1, and then finished up with starting to look at Surah 4 and its misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Yeah, I know. I did warn everyone beforehand saying this would be a seminary-level program, and, well, it was. Just a little discussion of today's journey and where I am before getting into Gregory's confession of faith once again. For some reason I really felt like I need to provide a lot of background information today, so, I did. After spending some time with Gregory I moved over to the Islamic area and started working toward making the case that the Qur'an does, in fact, misrepresent the Christian faith, and in particular, the Trinity, but again I spent so much time giving background information I never even got started- But we will get into it. If you like this kind of study, you'll enjoy this one. Or, if you are having trouble sleeping, well, it might help with that, too-
Jumped on line and did a quick program today, starting off with some stories from the road, and then looking at Jonathan Merritt's -coming out- and how we all knew he was a homosexual but I guess now can talk about it, or something. Then we looked at a wild-eyed leftist woman preacher from Canada who decides the Great Commission isn't all that great after all. Some important historical material there, so don't miss that- Enjoy-
Talked a little about the trip so far -including my ascent of Mt. Evans this morning-, then noted the continued destruction of the Constitution in the United States by the current Regime, and then moved to an in-depth discussion of Gregory of Nyssa's concluding sentences in his brief epistle, -On Not Three Gods,- once again allowing us to address the issue of the Trinity.
We did another Road Trip DL today and we had our first special guest, Dr. Jason Lisle of the Biblical Science Institute- We -geeked out- -according to my daughter- about fractals and science and worldview. It was a lot of fun- Make sure to get his new book on fractals.
We had a problem getting things to work back home and had to restart, but we go through a full discussion of Calvin's view of the Father, Son and Spirit in the Institutes, I-XIII-19-21. Gave a good bit of background information, too. An important study, I hope you will be blessed- Also, I gave to quotes, one each from Blaise Pascal and John Flavel, which I provide here---Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that.--BLAISE PASCAL, PENSEES 188-I know there is nothing in the Word or in the works of God that is repugnant to sound reason, but there are some things which are opposite to carnal reason, as well as above right reason- and therefore our reason never shows itself more unreasonable than in summoning those things to its bar which transcend its sphere and capacity.--JOHN FLAVEL
I can't tell you how long I've been dreaming about today- I am on day -1 of 22 on the road. Today was a big, big test, with some of the longest, steepest climbs in all of my trip. I did not know, until today, if our truck-5th wheel combination would handle today -the unit would be heavy due to having a lot of supplies for the trip in it-. Well, all went well, and I am ecstatic. Then we used our own in-unit WiFi for the program and-not a single hiccup- I know some places will throw us curves, but today was encouraging and exciting---Started off with a little report on the trip, of course, then talked a bit about Jason Lisle's new book, Fractals, The Secret Code of Creation https---biblicalscienceinstitute.com-product-fractals- . Do not stop, do not pass go, click on the link and get your copy- Then we talked about the continuing weaponization of science and medicine -by the way, I need to spend some time talking about how the Christian worldview prohibits such things and provides a moral and ethical foundation for the practice of science and medicine, a foundation denied by modern secularism- before moving on to examining a brief clip from Dr. Jarvis Williams from 2018 about -whiteness- in academia. Then we got into looking at Calvin in light of his having been cited in the debate last week with Jake Brancatella. We read through Institutes I-XIII-15-17, and we will pick up from there on the program tomorrow, Lord willing-
We spent today looking at the argument of Dr. Douglas Stauffer in his attempted defense of the King James Bible relating to Titus 2-13, specifically. Of course, we provided a lot of background, dove into the text, even took at look at P72, the earliest papyri manuscript of 2 Peter -another Granville Sharp Construction location-. So if you are into the history of the Bible, the KJV issue, witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses, etc., this is a program for you-
If the last DL caused you to lose sleep because of the creepy stuff we played from the global elites, today's clips from our governmental overlords will probably produce more insomnia. Sorry, but while there is still some daylight left, expose the unfruitful works of darkness. After a half hour of that -including reading Amy Grant's comments about welcoming the LGBTQ movement- I moved on to a review of key statements by Dr. Robert Gagnon, now of Houston Baptist University, on the subject of soteriology, and specifically regarding his claim that true, regenerate believers can be lost by not -maintaining their election.-
Covered a ton of topics from Doug Stauffer's claim that I changed the text of The King James Only Controversy because of his refutations -false-, to the weaponization of medicine, the onset of vaccine mandates, and the rise of trans-humanism. Played some pretty creepy videos -well, Rich thought they were creepy-. Talked about Leighton Flowers a bit, and Rich tells me a fellow in Twitter wrote to tell me that LF is not, actually, Southern Baptist, or, at least, works for a non-SBC entity, and hence could embrace Open Theism without a problem. I know years ago he was associated with Paige Patterson and Southwestern, but, things change. I still think he would be worried about the stigma still associated with the position, but maybe the attraction will get to him eventually. Anyway, lots of worldview analysis today on the program. Wrapped up with a few minutes in response to Sam Shamoun's recent rant.
Today we examined this article by Eric Kemp -following the claims of someone named Drew McLeod- that tries to argue that John 6 is only about the Apostles, and is not relevant to anyone alive today. We have examined many dozens of attempts to get around the teachings of John 6 over the years, and this one ranks right down toward the bottom of the list, merit wise.
A Three Part response to an email questioning God's purposes in creation, which allowed us to engage the broad topic of theodicy, the justification of God's purposes in light of the existence of evil.
Spent some time talking about how Australia has fallen into the pit of totalitarianism, then did an unplanned discussion of the Legacy Standard Bible's reading at Jude 5 and the upcoming ECM volumes -and CBGM data- for Mark that will be available in about three weeks. Moved from there to a discussion of the -debate- of some kind between Michael Brown and William Albrecht, which then took us to a brief interaction with Trent Horn's claims.
Not the most descriptive title, is it- Basically covered more on the SBC plagiarism scandal, reviewing some of what I included in my article about Tim Keller's -being a heterosexual won't get you to heaven- silliness, and how it was picked up by, and repeated by, so many others. We looked at the Docent Research Group, and wondered out loud how much they charge per sermon, and how any of this is considered acceptable by anyone at all. Then we looked at a clip from Cross Examined, Dr. Frank Turek's ministry, where he interacts with a woman whose mother is a Roman Catholic, and Dr. Turek's response regarding what actually defines the gospel. Finally we got back into Gregory's confession of faith for the last few minutes of the program, before Rich reminded me to mention the Travel Fund -upcoming trips, the 5th wheel trailer- and the stops we will be making in Colorado and elsewhere.
Did another program from up here in Prescott Valley, Arizona, looking at some amazing actions of Big Brother as he seeks to establish his totalitarian regime. Then we looked at the amazing documentation coming out about the blatant plagiarization of sermon material by Ed Litton, the new President of the SBC, and finished up at the end with more exciting material from the early church about the Trinity and the deity of Christ. Enjoy-
So I am thrilled to be on my first day of a -test run- with the new A-O -mobile command center,- our 5th wheel unit that I will be using to do a major western loop at the end of July into mid August, and then across the nation to G3 at the end of September as well. The truck-trailer combination passed the big test of climbing Sunset Point, a major accomplishment- We had a great show today on the technical level anyway, for which I am thankful as well. We covered the IRS's rejection of a Christian ministry's application for non-profit status based upon -seriously- the fact that the Bible's teachings line up with the Republican party. Then we thought about what it means that Pope Francis can write a congratulatory letter to Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit priest well known for his promotion of LGBTQ causes -see here-. Then we finished up looking a little more deeply at Gregory's confession of faith from around AD 265, digging into its biblical foundations. If we manage a program tomorrow, we will continue that study.
Just a quick program today from the Mobile Command Center. The audio is better than the video, Rich says. But we did manage to discuss sermon preparation and the theology behind it in light of current discussions, shall we say. Hope to do another program tomorrow, this time from a remote location on the road- The testing continues-
We did our very first live DL from our new mobile command center, aka, our 5th wheel unit that will be my living quarters as I travel around the US in the future -starting at the end of next month with a nearly 4000 mile loop around the western US, followed by my journey to Atlanta for the G3 Conference at the end of September, and my annual trip to Missouri in late November-early December-. I was a little distracted by some of the details, but I can see it will be a great spot for future programs. We looked briefly at some wild statements from Dr. Dale Tuggy, -analytical philosopher unitarian extraordinaire,- as he pontificated upon the dullards down below him in the intellectual scale. In the process we discussed the priority of divine revelation over philosophical categories and the need to keep the proper order in view. Should be back in the AOMobile next Tuesday, but this time, for the first time, seriously -on the road- during a brief test run up north here in Arizona.
The first half hour was focused on three videos most of us saw over the past week, looking at the tremendous problems in the black community in Chicago related to violence and crime, and how all of it goes back to fatherlessness and a fundamental rejection of God's law concerning the family and sexual activity. Then in the second half hour we returned to looking at Jimmy Akin's arguments against sola scriptura in his book, this week including a quick look at a great quote from John Chrysostom.
Well, Rich and I had other plans today, but those fell through -after taking all morning-, so we drove to the office and put together a quick DL featuring The Troublemaker from Texas,- Dr. Tom Buck, and then following him up with another true troublemaker as well, my own fellow pastor at Apologia Church, Jeff -The Ninja- Durbin. Tom told us about all the political stuff going on while Jeff brought us up to speed on the abolish abortion resolution and how the SBC Deep State even opposed that resolution -in league with the pro-life industry-. Had a bit of a technical hiccup right at the end of our talk with Tom but Rich tells me it isn't major. Enjoy-
I did the program from Summer's home today -they are installing the 5th wheel hitch in the truck today- so we talked about all sorts of stuff, including the SBC, how much the world has changed since Sheologians began, etc. Summer has come a long ways from her guest appearance on the show 25 years ago when we had her record, -My daddy will be right back- as one of our bumper slots.
Had an enjoyable conversation with Jake Brancatella, -the Muslim Metaphysician- on his conversion to Islam, his background, his -LPT- argument -Logical Problem with the Trinity-, and much more. Jake is discussing aspects of the Trinity and Christology that most Christians don't know about -let alone almost all Muslims- so you might just learn a few things yourself-
I'm not overly good at titling these things, am I- Started off telling everyone about our new travel initiative and the coming -A-O Travel Rig,- which will involve a 5th wheel RV and the truck to pull it. We will start talking to churches real soon so as to get as much ministry benefit from traveling as possible. So, I am speaking at G3 in late September, so, I will schedule stops at locations on the way across country and speak in churches that invite me in on a wide variety of topics. We have re-activated the travel fund here https---www.aomin.org-aoblog-support-us- if you would like to help us defray the rather substantial initial investment.--We also discussed Thomas Horrocks and the Christian worldview, Jeff Durbin's dialogue with Lizzy, and finally the discussion that took place between Mike Winger and Leighton Flowers on open theism.
Shared some wonderful stories from my trip to Pryor, meeting folks, etc., like I used to get to do before 2020- Also talked about how we want to try to visit more churches in the future, looking to do -road trips- where I use a 5th wheel situation to visit churches as I go. We have re-activated the travel fund link in anticipation of getting this set up as soon as possible. We will share more details as we work quickly to get things set up. Then we moved to a discussion of the -Muslim Metaphysician,- Jake Brancatella's materials as they are found on line. We've invited Jake to be on the program a week from today to discuss his approach and his history, and he has agreed to join us, so mark that down on your calendar and join us live-
Joe Biden told everyone their choice is clear- live in masks or take Dr. Fauci's Genetic Wonder Oil via tweet right as the program started, so we talked about that a bit. Spent about twenty minutes on the assertion that the ESV is -removing- things from the Bible in reference to effeminacy, etc., then moved to a quick overview of the -Junia the Apostle- argument in Romans 16, and finished up with more on sola scriptura and Jimmy Akin's claims.
Started off with worldview issues, including the necessary and inevitable attack upon Christian teaching by secularizing governments in the West, but eventually moved to an extended discussion of Paul's words to Timothy about women teaching and exercising authority over men. Lots of basic hermeneutics-exegesis issues covered today.
Three main topics today on a 75 minute edition of the Dividing Line- first, asking what Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, means by -white nature- and where this concept comes from. Second, we look at the trailer for the 1946 movie that is being fund-raised for right now regarding the alleged -mistake- in translating arsenokoites at 1 Corinthians 6-9 as -homosexual.- Third, we looked at more from Jimmy Akin's book, The Bible is a Catholic Book regarding authority.
First half an hour or so we talked about Covid and passports and freedoms and the like, then we moved into looking at Trent Horn's response to a small portion of our discussion of his 2019 Catholic Answers talk on Protestant -distortions- of church history, focusing upon the idea of -the argument from silence.- Almost an hour and 45 minutes today-
I did this program after doing Iron Sharpens Iron with Chris Arnzen, so this was sort of -hour three,- so I can't claim there was a great deal of order to my thoughts. But aside from the start -where I talked about cycling, sorry-, I spent most of the time considering the ramifications of the President's speech before Congress last night.