Building Bridges: Southern Baptists and Calvinism

Many of you are probably aware of the Nov. 26-28 Building Bridges conference held at the Lifeway Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina. This was a historic meeting that discussed Calvinism and it's role in the Southern Baptist Convention. From the accounts I have read, this meeting was a huge success.

All the messages are freely available here and I really hope that folks on both sides of the theological divide will take time to listen to the sermons. I've saved the messages to my computer and I'm listening through them now. So far both sides have (for the most part) presented their case maturely and with a spirit of Christian charity.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Get Ready to Rumble!

The Late Great Planet Church: Not All Israel is Israel.

Coming soon from NiceneCouncil.com...

Great Price on Reformation Study Bible!

On October 31, Ligonier Ministries is doing a one day promo on the Reformation Study Bible!!

At $15.17, this is the absolute best deal I've ever seen on this Bible!

Even if I was an Arminian, I couldn't pass up a deal like this!!

Click here for more details!

Below is a video about the Reformation Study Bible:

Pierced for Our Transgressions

New Book on the Atonement Now Available from Monergism Books! At a great price too!

What is a Worldview?

from The Truth Project

Theology Q & A

263 Theology questions and answers... Lots of topics covered! This ought to keep everybody busy for a while!

Learn to Talk Like Exist-Dissolve!

That's right Folks!

Now you can learn to talk/write like the infamous blogger known as Exist-Dissolve using a sorts of big $3.00 words by simply signing up for Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day email!

Each day you get a new word emailed to you with all sorts of etymological information to help you make use your new vocabulary word!

Just think: If you learn one new word a day, that's 365 new words in a year!

See today's word by clicking here!

The words might be worth $3.00, but the service is FREE!!

The Eschatology of R.L. Dabney

To my sheer delight, the Father's Day gift I received this year was a copy of R.L. Dabney's Systematic Theology. Dabney was a theologian in the Southern Presbyterian Church. He served in the Confederate Army as Chief-of-Staff to General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. No less a theologian than A. A. Hodge refereed to Dabney as "the best teacher of theology in the United States, if not the world."

Seeing how my last couple of posts have been on Eschatology, I would like to share with you some of Dabney's Eschatological thoughts.


The following comes from pp. 837 and 838 of Dabney's Systematic Theology:


"That doctrine which we hold, and which we assert to be the Apostolic and Church doctrine, teaches, just as much as the pre–Adventists, the literal and personal second advent of Christ, and we hold, with the Apostolic Christians, that it is, next to heaven, the dearest and most glorious of the believer’s hopes: as bringing the epoch of his full deliverance from death, and full introduction into the society of his adored Saviour. This hope of a literal second advent we base on such Scriptures as these: Acts 1:11: 3:20, 21; Heb. 9:28; 1 Thess. 4:15, 16; Phil. 3:20; Matt. 26:64, etc., etc.

Before this second advent, the following events must have occurred. The development and secular overthrow of Antichrist, (2 Thess. 2:3 to 9; Dan. 7:24–26; Rev. 17:, 18:) which is the Papacy. The proclamation of the Gospel to all nations, and the general triumph of Christianity over all false religions, in all nations. (Ps. 72:8–11; Is. 2:2–4; Dan. 2:44, 45; 7:14; Matt. 28:19, 20; Rom. 11:12, 15, 25; Mark 13:10; Matt. 24:14). The general and national return of the Jews to the Christian Church. (Rom. 11:25, 26). And then a partial relapse from this state of high prosperity, into unbelief and sin. (Rev. 20:7, 8). During this partial decline, at a time unexpected to formal Christians and the profane, and not to be expressly foreknown by any true saint on earth, the second Advent of Christ will take place, in the manner described in 1 Thess. It will be immediately followed by the resurrection of all the dead, the redeemed dead taking the precedence. Then the generation of men living at the time will be changed (without dying) into their immortal bodies, the world will undergo its great change by fire, the general judgment will be held; and last, the saved and the lost will severally depart to their final abodes, the former to be forever with the Lord, the latter with Satan and his angels."





In case you were wondering, Dabney was a Postmillennialist!

Beast of Revelation Identified DVD Half Price!

The folks at the Nicene Council have another great sale going. This time it's a 1/2 price sale on their Beast of Revelation Identified DVD featuring Dr. Kenneth Gentry speaking at the 1999 Ligonier National Conference.

I recently bought a copy of this video. It gives a compelling answer to the question of the identity of the Beast of Revelation and it's also a great introduction to Partial-Preterism and Postmillenial eschatology. If you watch the video -with an open mind and an open Bible- you might be surprised at just how flawed the popular "Left Behind" eschatology really is...!

Amazing Grace DVD 1/2 Price!

I just got an email from the Nicene Council (formerly the Apologetics Group) saying that from now until June 30th, their Amazing Grace DVD is on sale for 1/2 their normal price!


If you don't have this DVD in your library, you need to (1) repent for not already having it and (2) order your copy of this awsome video today! I've never seen it offered at such a low price before!

That's 4 hours & 17 minutes worth of great theology for only $14.99!!!

To see preview clips: click here!

To order yourself a copy: click here!

Prowl: A Manly Man's Christian Novel

I have the pleasure of doing a book review today. The book is called Prowl. The author is none other than my esteemed Reformed Mafia cohort, Gordan Runyan.

A few months back, I won the book in a contest Gordan was running on his blog. I am very grateful to Gordan for doing this, and for Yahoo! Search for helping me to find the correct answers to his contest questions...

Today when I was telling a friend about this book, he remarked that he never knew me to read anything fiction, and he was mostly correct. Historically, the extent of my fictional reading has been books that teach Dispensational Eschatology and browsing the op/ed section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Other than most of my reading time has been spent reading theology and history books.

Honestly, I really cannot say enough good things about Prowl! I could hardly put it down. The book has everything a guy could want: submarine warfare, double agents, mystery, suspense, violence, car chases, shoot-outs, assasins, computer hacking, a troubled marriage, nuclear weapons, and true Redemption -which is the most important thing of all!!

Prowl is a novel for the manly man! It kept me on my toes the whole time and almost made me want to join the Navy and become a submariner! Sometimes I am happy to get to the end of a book, but when I finished Prowl today, I was hungry for more! (hint, hint, Gordan...)

I've said it from the first few chapters and I still say it now: Prowl should be made into a movie!

Do yourself a big favor and get a copy of Prowl today!

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms

This is probably the most inspiring movie in my collection. Would to God we had a few more Luther's in our day! If you don't own this movie, buy it ASAP!

The Day and The Hour (Book Review)

Back in December I wrote an article called "Spurgeon on End Times Foolishness" where I addressed how aggravated I get with all the so-called prophecy teachers and their predictions and wild assertions. At the time, my eschatology was Dispensational Premillennial. However, right after I wrote the article, I started looking at some other eschatological options and now I'm currently undecided.

Recently, I obtained a copy of Francis X. Gumerlocks "The Day and The Hour: Christianity's Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the Word." I just finished it today and I have to say it was quite a fascinating read! It is basically a chronicle of End Times predictions that have been made from the first century and up to (and beyond) our present day. Also included are all the false predictions of the Watchtower, Moonies, Mormons, and other cults.

With hardly any commentary from the author, the book clearly shows how every generation has had both gifted scholars and wacko nut-jobs who tried to use current events to predict the 2nd Coming, the identity of the Antichrist, the 144,000, the Two Witnesses, etc, etc,...

I was surprised to learn that Puritan minister Cotton Mather predicted that Christ would return in 1717! One of my favorite stories was about how Pat Robertson planned to go to Israel and film/broadcast the 2nd Coming back in 1979!

The book shows that from the orthodox to the heterdox, way too many people have erred by trying to predict "the day and the hour;" and they all have one thing in common: THEY WERE ALL WRONG!

Regardless of your eschatological persuasion, I highly recommend this book. It's really interesting, fun to read, and will probably help you to be bold in crying foul the next time some clown writes another book setting a date for our Lord's return!

"It is not the one who asserts that He is near, nor the one who asserts that He is not near, who loves the coming of the Lord, but the one who waits for Him with sincere faith, firm hope, and ardent love, whether He be near or far." -Augustine of Hippo, 419 AD

Does God Exist?

http://www.proofthatgodexists.org/

Free CD!!!

I would like to recommend that all my Rant readers visit American Vision and order a free copy of an audio message called "The Worldview War" by Gary DeMar.

Free CD, free shipping, and a good message!

If you're not satisfied, I'll give you a refund myself! ;-)