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Webcasting around the world from the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. This is The Dividing Line. The Apostle Peter commanded Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us.
Yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence. Our host is dr. James White director of Alpha Omega Ministries and an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. This is a live program and we invite your participation.
If you'd like to talk with dr. White call now at 602 -973 -4602 or toll-free across the United States It's 1 -877 -753 -3341. And now with today's topic here is James White.
And good morning to you. It is indeed morning only 11 o 'clock here in the Phoenix area and this is the first time we have done a Dividing line at this time of the morning on a weekday. And so I would like to possibly get some of your assistance today if at all possible we'd like to know who is out there who has the opportunity of listening and calling in and so we would invite your participation today at 877 -753 -3341.
877 -753 -3341. Obviously one of the questions that comes across our mind is what kind of participation by phone we can possibly Expect during the course of a program on a weekday and so possibly those of you who would have access to a phone who might be able to Let us know that you have an opportunity to call in you could participate.
We won't necessarily force you to get on the air. But and maybe a few of you could give us a ring just let us know. Yeah, you know if you were talking about something that was that I want to make a comment on I could I could give you a call this time of the day and Yeah, why not?
Besides that you know Rich has had his coffee. He's awake now and He wants to be able to pick up those phones and do his best radio man voice and say good morning this is the dividing line and You can tell I haven't done much talking yet today in fact other than Helping out my my sick wife who has the flu today I haven't been doing much talking at all.
I've been trying to get to that morning rush of email put out all the fires that erupt over over the evenings and Actually, I was just sitting here scanning Old old pictures and when I say old pictures man.
I'm gonna tell you These I've got some pictures here of the night that I asked my wife to marry me. This was December 5th, man. Look at that swag lamp in the corner. Whoa December 5th 1981. You would not believe the amount of hair on this on this now completely bald head of mine and look at those glasses they You can install windshield wipers on those babies, they're huge man, and I'm not talking about my wife here by the way I'm talking about me.
Oh my goodness, and there's a sweat member swag lamps over in the corner. It's it's one of those. How do you describe those things? You know, I had the the chunks of like orange glass, you know. It was really chunky like thing and and oh man, I'm gonna tell you these are I'm scanning these things what I'm doing is I'm getting them.
I'm putting in my palm tungsten tea. Thank you very much. Oh, oh the wife just joined the channel. Hope she's not listening. That's funny anyways. Even have a picture here of Singing group. I was in back in high school.
It's a group called liberation. This is back from 19 this would have been early 81 or 80. I forget which it is. I don't know but man I I once did have a 28 30 inch waist and lots and lots of hair and oh It's a reminder that time definitely definitely passes by so Anyways, good morning.
Welcome to I hate your dumb tungsten tea. Boy jealousy is alive and well, even even in the early morning hours. That's that's very funny. Anyways, my tungsten tea by the way is sitting in its recharging cradle.
I've moved it over right next to my keyboard where the color pictures are scrolling through using splash clock. So there's a clock there. It tells what time it is and all my pretty pictures are just are just You know going past and it's very pretty and I have pictures of my family and all sorts of beautiful stuff.
And so it's it's great. Anyways, welcome to the program today. I don't know what I Shouldn't admit this. But to be honestly to be honest with you. Yes, I was the bass man Theophilus I sang down there in the bottom and can't sing nearly as well now as I did them anyways.
Excuse me, I'm not sure what I guess I shouldn't admit that until I went into channel this morning and looked at the at the Topic line. I had completely forgotten that it was Tuesday and That we were going to be doing this today.
And already the the the inmates in the in the channel are are saying the things that they shouldn't be saying so anyways, eight seven seven seven five three three three forty one. I Probably should mention I was trying to load but I couldn't get to listen to him in time.
I was trying to load just one clip. I was thinking about playing for you and I don't know I want to sit here and look through something to find it. I might sort of depends on on other things. But I must I must mention something as well if you do have some questions.
You wanted to ask today some issues you wanted to raise. Maybe some things we said last Saturday you wanted to comment on we did get a lot of calls right toward the end of the program. Do keep one thing in mind, this is not a 90-minute program.
This is a 60-minute program. We have 54 minutes left and Hence if you decide to wait like most folks normally do to the last half hour of the program. There won't be a last half hour of the program. So you you will want to you'll want to get your calls in much earlier than you normally do or you would not be able to get into the program at all today because today is 60 minutes and Then Thursday evening when I'm in town on a Thursday evening.
We will be doing 60 minutes as well. However, I did want to Remind you if you were unaware of this Coming up on the 13th of March. That's a Thursday night one. Two one two one two full weeks from it's a two four three or four weeks from this coming Thursday evening.
Wait a minute. I'm looking at the wrong thing here. I've got a program open on top of my calendar and That doesn't help any. So that's a one and two. I was right three full weeks from this coming Thursday evening we will be doing a debate in the channel and It'll be on the subject of the apocrypha a Participant in IRC who goes by the Nick Aquinas says his name is Steven, but that's the second name he's given me so I don't really know what his name is, but anyways, we are going to be debating the issue of the canonicity of the apocrypha or the lack thereof and Therefore you might want to put that on your calendar that one will probably go long.
We're not gonna limit that just to an hour. That'll probably go a little longer than an hour as well it should because it's a fairly complex subject there's a lot of information to be to be addressed and so that will be on the show and then who knows maybe what we could do is sort of fit it together with the IRC Channel and if there's more discussion that people want to have take place Afterwards, maybe mr. Aquinas Pat Steve person Would be willing to stay in channel and we can you know have discussions and so on and so forth at that point.
Maybe that will work out. I don't know anyways, so that's coming up on the 13th those of March those of you in San Antonio. I head your direction Lord willing Thursday morning. I knew that was going to happen.
Especially since folks aren't aware that I'm on the air right now and therefore they don't know it's okay they can they can call me back at another time and They get a lot of calls during this particular hour and you have to remember to turn that thing off anyways I'll be heading your way a Thursday morning at some time in the morning Thursday evening Friday evening I believe twice on Saturday then Sunday morning.
We will be discussing dr. Norman Geisler's Chosen but free and some folks sort of feel like chosen but free has fallen off of the falling off the radar screen and in a sense Chosen but free is definitely look looking better these days.
That that by comparison to the Other books that have come out since then shall we say? Specifically in regards to Dave Hunt's book I'll be at the well. I'm not sure where I'm going to be. I'm I'm being brought in by free grace Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.
But there's three or four churches that are getting together, and I don't believe that we're actually going to be meeting at That particular church. I think we're going to be meeting at At another church, and I don't I don't know what that church is.
I was sent actually a Flyer so let's see how fast The flyers I have only have yeah Thursday Saturday. That's true, but on Sunday morning I'm preaching at the at free grace Baptist Church, and so maybe Mr.. MD H and channel can tell us where exactly we're going to be before I Managed to get to the proper attachment in the sub directory under you Dora.
So I can let you know exactly where that is because I do know that we have folks. Have folks there. Let's see here. It's not the itinerary one. The Dee da da dee dee dee dee doo doo hmm. Ah there we go.
Let's see if this has that has it on it, or if this is one of the funny one village Parkway Baptist Church, Thank You mr.. MD H person and We had some emails wanting to know where you'll be. Yeah, I'm sure we sure we did someday.
We're gonna have to hire somebody who actually? Put the calendar on the website. 3002 village Parkway, it's probably why it's called village Parkway Baptist Church in fact. In San Antonio lots fun you try to open up a word mm.
It takes like 15 minutes on a 1 .7 gigahertz Processing machine takes you know it's. I'm still sitting here waiting for it there. We go boy. I'll tell you that's got to be the stinking slowest thing I've ever.
Yep, village Parkway Baptist Church. That's what it says November 20 and November. Somebody had the wrong date in there anyways, that's where we're going to be so those of you in the San Antonio area if you would like to Attend that please feel free to do so I'd be glad to meet you.
I've already had some folks who have said hey gonna try to catch you there. And there's some other folks who said I wanted to but I'm not gonna be able to do so February 20th is 7 to 9 p .m.. The 21st is 7 to 9 p .m..
The 22nd is 9 a .m.. To noon so That's a fair amount of time, but obviously what I'm going to do is. I'm going to have a presentation I'm going to be discussing chosen, but free. I'm going to be going over some of the things that That dr. Geisler has to say and I'll tell you right now if you're interested.
I'm going to be starting with a discussion not so much of the issue of Predestination election and and the doctrines of grace and things like that but specifically With the issue of the fact that to dr. Geisler's book Misrepresents not only myself in its response to me, but also misrepresents John Owen and John Piper and basically with a little bit of discussion.
Why is it that the materials produced against the reform position are So universally bad in their misrepresentation of the subject they're addressing why can't you just simply represent the topic properly and And deal with it from that perspective that that's really what the first session is going to be about and sort of more about how we interact with those who have the tradition of Arminianism as they're overriding concern and then Friday and and Saturday go into more of the presentation dealing with John 6 and you know how to present these things.
So what dr. Geisler said using that as the platform, but it's gonna be more of a positive Presentation the doctrines of grace. That's we're gonna be looking at. I would imagine I I guess some places I go they don't actually record things but in the vast majority of places Recordings are made and so if you'd be interested in getting those I would imagine you'd be able to get them from either Village Parkway Baptist Church or Or some of the other churches are involved with the with the thing that's going on in San Antonio.
So that's coming up this week. I in fact need to Get some work done today on those PowerPoint presentations because all I have are quotes right now. And you know what it takes to put quotes into PowerPoint takes a little bit of a little bit of work.
We have someone in Bowling Green, Kentucky is listening got a call from, Kentucky. They're they're awake in Kentucky. That's a good thing down there in the heartland of Heartland of America so good to have you folks listening in today.
But those are the only folks who are listening today. We have one person in Bowling Green, Kentucky who's listening no one else loves us enough or Cares cares for rich enough to give him a call at a toll-free number.
I mean eight seven seven seven five three thirty three forty one. I mean, you know, there's there's rich. He's sitting over there. He hasn't shaved yet. You know the poor guy, you know up early in the morning getting ready for all that stuff.
And he was excited about this and so far we have we have one person in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We thank that person. We thank that person from the bottom of our hearts because if it weren't for those few people out there We just we would be talking to ourselves.
We truly would be well anyways, I like I said, I was going to possibly play a a Cut here. So maybe I'm just gonna have to play with this thing and you'll get to hear what it's like to see we started we started Fibsters handing out violins we started the music half an hour before the program and that's also how I listen to my Cuts and stuff so I Tried but it I didn't hear it and it didn't get that in time.
So I think I have the right section here. I Don't know. We're gonna take a shot at it. This is a This is a section that I was Going to play on Saturday, but all the calls started coming in and that's great.
That's that's fine this is a section from the 2002 Edition of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church Conference that has caused so much So much difficulty and so much controversy. This is a little bit more from Steve Schlissel and I I found this section very interesting if this is the proper section For a number of reasons first of all from a Baptist perspective We get mentioned in here as I recall, but also some some other perspectives.
So let's go ahead and let it run for a couple minutes here Catch some comments while you folks are calling in and those of you who are calling in just let you let us know that you're listening. Hey, if you've got a question or something, make sure to let rich know we would be glad to to deal with that.
But I wanted to play this little section here and see.
Make some comments about about what is said how many times does God have to tell us how much we mean to him? How much he loves us and yet we spurn his love and we despise his overtures. We don't believe them.
We teach our children to doubt we teach our congregations to doubt. We are the people of the Living God. How common it is to see every possible people group talking of their pride? So that we have black pride white pride Polish pride gay pride every kind of pride on the map.
Except Christians being the ones who are entitled to be proud not because of any righteousness in themselves. But because God has reached down out of heaven and taken them to be his own. You know in the Passover ritual God said I want you to do this in remembrance of me.
I want you to do this in remembrance of what I did for you. I birthed you. I came down from heaven and delivered you from bondage in a way that's Irrefutable and I gave you a special status as above all nations to be my nation in whom I would dwell and Now when this people proved themselves unbelieving and unworthy God engrafted people from all nations.
You were once foreigners to the covenants of the promise. But now as God God has put you in so that these promises and this history is yours, but even more. Because Christ came for you not just to deliver you from Egypt.
But to deliver you from the power of sin and the power of Satan and from the power of death. He's delivered you from every foe and every enemy and put you securely to be his own and to guard you on every side.
He's given you great and precious promises that you ought to believe and to cherish and to love and Yet we read this claptrap about assurance and how many? Different new words are necessary in a vocabulary to believe it.
Why is it so hard to believe? Yes, in a sense we could say could it be true and can it be that I should gain? But the answer to the question is yes, it can be yes. God has said so and that's all the assurance we need is that God said it.
Your identity is to be the people of God. God has called you to be his own. I Am from the Gentiles. I'm sending you to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God so that they may Receive forgiveness of sins in a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord live as children of light. Don't you see how simple it is? This is who you are. You are children of light live that way. What is so hard about this.
I can't I just can't understand. I can't go back to this old Scholastic Unbelieving way of reading the Bible. Parsing it to death so that we miss the sentences. Here it is. You are God's children live like God's children.
How simple can it be? Have pride in whom God has called you to be. Your identity is that you are the people of God and every pastor here has to address his people to Inculcate this consciousness to develop it to nurture it to feed it to make it grow stronger not weaker.
You are the people of the atonement. No one else is the people of God except those who are in Christ.
Just wanted to catch that make sure you heard that we are the people of the what? the atonement. Just want to catch that because remember how do you enter into this? This is a big emphasis is being made.
You enter into this by baptism and While the big questions a lot of us are asking is are you saying that baptism places you into the atonement of Christ? That's been one of the big issues. I've been focusing on.
I'm not getting really good answers to let's listen to just a few more Seconds of this because there's a specific.
Quotation I was looking for. No one else has an atonement except those who are in Christ. This was the glory of the people Israel. They had that amazing calendar to testify of what they were in God. So that each year when the pagan nations were running after some Recycling program when they would when they would try to do imitative and sympathetic magic to make the earth Blossom God would remind them.
I am the one who gives life. I am the author of life, and I gave you life. Then we see at the harvest at the Pentecost. I will stop it there the.
To two things very quickly, and I'm going to look at another another section here two things quickly first of all. Again a lot of a lot of This whole issue hasn't really been dealt with. There's a lot of firing going on, but not a lot of discussion and and part of it is.
You know I keep hearing folks saying well. You know that those folks aren't being treated fairly. They're not being given a hearing. Did I hear terms like this this unbelieving? Scholasticism that's how what he's reacting at is being described.
Claptrap was another another term this claptrap about assurance if you're not familiar with what we're talking about here. A lot of this whole argument in this discussion is is aimed at the at the Puritans and Their assertion that you look for fruit you look for and lives that show evidence of the work of the Spirit within them and What's being said is no you don't look at things like that you look to your baptism.
You look to your baptism as the the promise of God's grace in your life, and and so on and so forth and So it you know that the same time we're being told these folks affirm all the five points of Calvinism well okay, so baptism is what's unites you to the death of Christ and Remember these folks are also pedo baptist therefore they distribute baptism to all of their children which would Necessitate that all their children are united with Christ and hence they're in the atonement.
And so I don't see how the idea of particular Redemption and all that it means fits in with all this and these are all the these are all the questions. And a number of them not all of them this guy isn't but Douglas Wilson's a pedo Communionist as well, and he sort of goes off on that particular tangent Schlissel isn't so you know they're not Saying the exact same thing in the exact same words, but certainly sound like that was an interesting Interesting assertion now here's another Another section I want to try to.
I'm still looking for the exact phrase.
I wanted to find you to see if I can track it in the back bin in the base bin as it some pronounce it. And the house of judgment where the Jews resolved their difficulties because they believe it's shameful.
To bring their cases before pagan courts now. There are problems, and I can spend a good deal of time telling you about the difficulties that they have but overall Their conception of keeping the matter of justice among the covenant people is something that puts us to shame because we have made this dichotomy between we identify the Covenant and the covenant people as the church and we mean by that the ecclesiastical institution and therefore when the church gets together.
It's a presbytery meeting or it's a classist meeting and it's only handles church business. It doesn't handle covenant community business and. So that's taken care of outside. In other venues and the reason that that is so is because we have only become expert or adept at Confessional issues that deal with narrow concerns and not about life issues that deal with how does a man?
One of the first things the Talmud deals with is two men come into a bed in into a court and they're both holding the cloak and each one says it is mine and then that deals with how do you resolve this case and Each one case after another is brought forth.
We'll we'll just reject that all say it's traditionalism. But it's it's not merely traditionalism. It's an effort to apply the word and the Word of God is found in the laws of God and has worked out in history.
As so that they're living among the covenant people. In our day our people don't even know the Ten Commandments. We think we know the gospel because we've reduced it to four spiritual laws, but we don't know the Ten Commandments.
We did a Bible study not long ago on Wall Street and there were several people from Prudential securities and other places coming to this Bible study. And we just took on a lark one day said anybody know the Ten Commandments about 10 12 people.
They're not a soul. Knew them so then the next question these are all professing Christians by the way. Anybody know where to find them? When one person got it to the right Testament, you know where they were some I think that same person Had an inkling they were in Exodus.
Didn't know that they were repeated in Deuteronomy. But this is the state of affairs because of our concern with our own personal salvation based upon a view that God really doesn't want to save anyone and that he's playing games and that if it's not by works, which we have done it's by a kind of faith, which we can't identify and We're always like, you know, you see this.
Not no offense. But this is especially prevalent in southern Presbyterians for some reason who are essentially Baptists who don't refrain from Sprinkling their babies. They think like Baptists they address their children as Baptists.
They don't believe their children are saved by the grace of God. They believe they're waiting for a decision some some sort of cogent confessible experience of personal regeneration and Transition from death to life because they believe their children are born in death they've bought into the Baptistic way of thinking and It is just an abomination.
Does this mean there's no legitimacy to spiritual experience, of course, there is why should it be once? Why should it just be twice? It may not be at all. It may be a hundred times. There's growth and development.
There are crises in people's lives. There's always the seeking to greater conformity to the entire Word of God, but we don't base it on some.
To catch that I finally found it there. Oh, it took took me a while. I confess took me a while but There you just heard the only way I can hear this The only way I can understand that is That you are not to believe that you and this is you know, I've known this for a long time.
I mean I have wonderful Presbyterian friends and We've talked about this and the ones that I can that we can minister together are the ones who say look I recognize that my child is is born spiritually dead and I do not believe that my baptism of that child changes their heart and I know that there are children who are baptized in the church who are reprobates and will never experience spiritual life and I will call my children to repentance.
I will present the gospel to them. I will I will pray that God will melt their hearts and will make them servants of his those Presbyterians we Join hands and we minister together. But that's what he was just saying is completely wrong.
That's what he was just saying is wrong. Baptism joins them to Christ gives them the grace of Christ and we just simply need to teach them to live like Christians. That's the fundamental issue. That is baptismal regeneration and I that is.
That is I can not see how that is even slightly consistent with a belief in Personal election and predestination. I cannot see it. I do not understand it. It makes no sense to me at all. 8777 it's abomination to mr. Schlissel.
That's for sure 877 -753 -3341 Is the phone number we've had folks calling have some callers online invite you to participate as well. We'll be right back right after this break.
Answering those who claim that only the King James Version is the Word of God. James White in his book the King James only controversy examines allegations that modern translators conspired to corrupt scripture and lead believers away from true Christian faith in a readable and responsible style.
Author James White traces the development of Bible translations old and new and Investigates the differences between new versions and the authorized version of 1611. You can order your copy of James White's book the King James only controversy by going to our website at www .a o min dot org.
What is dr Norman Geisler warning the Christian community about in his book chosen, but free a new cult secularism false prophecy scenarios. No, dr. Geisler is sounding the alarm about a system of beliefs commonly called Calvinism.
He insists that this belief system is theologically inconsistent Philosophically insufficient and morally repugnant. In his book the potter's freedom James White replies to dr. Geisler, but the potter's freedom is much more than just a reply.
It is a defense of the very principles upon which the Protestant Reformation was founded. Indeed it is a defense of the very gospel itself in a style that both scholars and laymen alike can appreciate.
James White masterfully counters the evidence against so-called Extreme Calvinism. Defines what the reformed faith actually is and concludes that the gospel preached by the reformers is the very one taught in the pages of scripture.
The potter's freedom a defense of the Reformation and a rebuttal to Norman Geisler's chosen. But free you'll find it in the reformed theology section of our bookstore at a o min org. This portion of the dividing line has been made possible by the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.
The Apostle Paul spoke of the importance of solemnly testifying of the gospel of the grace of God. The proclamation of God's truth is the most important element of his worship in his church. The elders and people of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church invite you to worship with them this coming Lord's Day.
The morning Bible study begins at 9 30 a .m. And the worship service is at 10 45. Evening services are at 6 30 p .m. On Sunday and the Wednesday night prayer meeting is at 7. The Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church is located at 3805 North 12th Street in Phoenix.
You can call for further information at 602 2 6 grace. If you're unable to attend you can still participate with your computer and real audio at PR BC org where the ministry extends around the world through the archives of sermons and Bible study lessons available 24 hours a day.
And welcome back to the Tuesday morning 11 a .m. Someday I'm gonna forget about this thing and I'm not going to be around and Rich is gonna get to do it on his own. He's gonna get to solo someday and he's gonna come on and say well it's it's Tuesday and Someone's I hear so why don't you call and and talk about stuff and I'll go.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Actually rich does all the talking on the phone here so, you know those of you who called in and and you know, you've everybody calls in and I need to talk to dr. white and Just give it up.
Okay, it ain't gonna work. You know unless you have the super secret decoder ring password, you cannot get past my firewall. So he's one ends up talking to all you folks he knows everything there is to know about.
And and a few other folks he gets talked to folks for long periods of time so anyways, we do have I think we have do we we have. We have our one of the few few Christians in New Jersey online. Well now they have two hours a week to get through to you.
Yes, that's true. But hey, they you know, it's funny. Don't don't people act differently when other people are listening. Is that interesting? I mean you would think that the phone lines would burn up but It's not quite the same way.
Let's let's go back to the the snowy snowy land of of New Jersey Where I understand it was still snowing even this morning much of the white frozen precipitation on the ground and Let me check. Oh, look at the little weather bug down in my system tray.
It says that even before noon, it's 66 degrees here. My my my hi Steve, how are you? Dr. White? I'm warm and comfortable. How about you?
I'm warm and comfortable, too. Well, you're inside though.
Take take your mobile phone outside and say that to me with a.
Little earlier we Got a little bit of snow about 28 inches here 28 inches of snow and fortunately I have a 8 horsepower snowblower with a With a 26 inch auger on it and it just sort of eats it up. Oh.
Well, yeah that you know those sell real well out here, too. I See them. I see them painted gold and retired on the the rock lawns of Sun City. Seriously, I haven't seen a motorized one. But I remember when we first moved out here.
We drive to Sun City and there would be these snow shovels and they've been painted gold and retired. Put on it and they're out in the middle of a rock lawn. In in Sun City, it's really funny. Anyways, sir, what can we do for you on this this fine weekday?
I have a couple of things. One of them I was. I was curious how you got the platters to sing. Backup from Martin Luther. Well.
It's called the karaoke shop and and of course That what you're referring to is the fact that at the end of the program last week or on Saturday I told folks in the channel stay online Don't don't disconnect and I I replayed the the classic works of Actually, the specific name on the tape is party hardy Marty Luther and the protesters singing the the great reformer and you don't own me and Well, actually quite seriously he got the the music just down your local karaoke shop.
That's where you go to get You know backup tracks when you go and do karaoke songs and so he just went and got those and he was snow Interestingly enough. He was snowed in one night that I was Speaking at the SAS at Bible Baptist Church on the solas of the Reformation.
He was snowed in at home so instead of coming to hear me speak on that subject, he wrote those two songs and Performed them at the Tuscarora youth retreat that we had a few days later and they were such huge hits that He then went into where he works at a radio station and closed the door on the production studio and recorded those Rather professionally and I played them for Steve camp a couple of weeks ago.
And he said we've got to get that on CD. We've got to get those things out to folks. So who knows maybe you'll hear it and you're you're a top 10 Christian countdown and then again.
Probably not but probably probably not but I'd love to get a copy of it.
There are a lot of bootleg copies running around. I sure I'm sure. Yeah, it is. It is classic humor and. You know some some folks oh. That's not that that's offensive and it's like, you know, have you ever ever what it read Envoy magazine?
I mean this rock magazine. They they're very good at using humor and.
This is the exact same same type of thing. So anyways, I've been known to read the door.
Well, there you go, I mean that was once classic. It's gotten a little I don't know if it's quite as good as it once Was but yet the good example a good example of it.
Yes, sir. Actually not a question, but a comment and get you to respond. You heard them mentioned earlier on. About you're going to speak about how to deal with the misrepresentations. Mm-hmm. Of the reformed position on Calvinism for example.
Mm-hmm. And Related experience that I had recently where someone friend of mine Was so upset and got rather annoyed with me and just kept. Saying, you know the the select few the select few and it became very emotional.
I guess one of these was one of the answers to your question or to the issues you can be deal with that is that it becomes emotional and a lot of the reactions to it are just emotional reactions and people refuse to.
Try to go to the scriptures and and let the scriptures speak for themselves. Yes, yes, and it becomes emotional and again on tradition and the traditional ways of understanding things and we're. We're hitting a cultural barrier as well.
Oh, yeah.
Well, there's there are many things that we are dealing with when when we try to raise this issue I I mean it really obviously you can only make general comments because each individual situation is different.
But what I encounter very very frequently Is within within the context of trying to share this With individuals who who claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God they claim to believe that they are under its authority.
They claim that all of their beliefs must be subject to the authority of Scripture. You would think that in that context It would be pretty easy to you know to pursue the subject and to be able to have a good Communication have good communication take place on so forth.
Unfortunately what I find in that situation is that's when you discover the power of tradition and This is something that I harp on but a lot of folks don't so I keep harping on it because no one listens anyways, but We really have our traditions and the person who thinks he doesn't have traditions is the person under the most control of his traditions.
Because he can't examine them. He can't hold them up to the light of Scripture and hence that type of individual. When you start challenging the tradition in their mind, and this is where we need to recognize where the emotions are coming from.
In their mind you are questioning either their personal faith. Or you're questioning the Word of God itself because once the equation my tradition equals the Word of God my Interpretations are the Word of God, and they wouldn't want you know they haven't thought about it that way most of them Have never been challenged one way or the other they haven't really considered it that way.
But but that's what's functionally is taking place in their mind so we need to recognize that in essence by by pushing ahead without addressing the issue of Ultimate authorities not addressing the issue of the role of tradition the more and more we push all we're going to be doing is repeatedly Raising those emotions and and and really creating a tremendous Job for ourselves so sort of like a you know if Well use an illustration that that you would know about right now and everybody in the East Coast is.
When a snowplow goes down the road the the plow is Never just straightforward. It's never at at right angles to the snow is it yeah? They put it at an angle why? Because if you don't you just create a bigger and bigger and bigger mountain of snow in front of you until even the biggest Snowplow is going to bog down.
It can't get anywhere. It puts it at an angle so that once it moves the snow. It's moving it in a particular direction off the side so we can continue making progress great well. Now there you go, so that's right.
They snow you in that way. But the same thing is true here if we don't deal with what's creating the emotional Backlash and just keep plowing forward. I've watched this happen With with the we call them the cage stage Calvinist and The cage stage Calvinist is the person who's who's new to the doctrines of grace.
They're all excited. They've they've seen the you know they recognize the glory of God and the holiness of God. And and this is very exciting to them and all these neat and wonderful things and that's that's great.
But they don't have the wisdom yet to know that you just then don't go running out and start. You know handing out copies of RC scroll books to everybody in your church. Because there's going to be a backlash, and then just beating people over the head with Romans chapter 9 until they bleed.
You know that's that's generally not a good thing and so the cage stage Calvinist this doesn't have the wisdom yet to know how to effectively share these things and to remove the these. You know basically they're going straight at it with the snowplow.
And they're going to create a nice big mountain that will eventually fall over on top of them. And they wonder what happened. Wisdom causes you to turn that plow at an angle and start dealing with issues and get those issues out of the way.
So that you can you know pat down the emotions and then move forward from there. Some of the simple ways you can do that is is I I frequently will use John 6. Rather than say Romans 9 or Romans 8 not because there's there's more authority in John 6.
But because I have found a lot of these folks are are more likely to listen to the words of Jesus. Initially there's almost an anti Paul Concept for some folks well, there's difficult things in Paul you know but if it's in John and well that is where John 3 is and John 6 isn't far from John 3 and Am I compromising anything there?
No Jesus certain didn't compromise anything in John 6. I'm just trying to to deal with the person where they are and And avoid any unnecessary Encumberments to their coming to understand these truths and the other thing is look if It's not up to you and I I mean we can be that's exactly right.
We are grossly inconsistent when we think that somehow we have to Accomplish this this this is something that there has to be. There has to be patience involved in and it's not just in this area. There are a lot of areas where I have discovered and it's it's a function of growth.
It's a function of of getting older I guess but There are a lot of a lot of times that people sort of look at me. And they go well you know that guy said such-and-such to you. And I know you don't believe that and I know that you've said to me such-and-such and so why didn't you say oh, no you're wrong about that and and just just shred him and I'm like well because I didn't feel it was necessary to do so I think that's This person shows evidence of being obedient to God loving God's Word, and I can trust God to lead his people.
I don't I no longer think that I have to somehow take the reins and and do these things on my own and That that takes a while once you've gotten out of the cage stage to learn that you know sometimes It's it's best to just let some growth and maturity take place and and You know when folks come to a conclusion They think anyways on their own.
It's frequently much more of a firm conclusion that if they are sort of dragged they're kicking and screaming anyways. So you know I speak the truth, and I let I let that truth Minister to to God's people and and there's there's a great confidence in that there's a great Relief you don't have to feel so tremendously.
You know I don't know what it'd be like to be in our minion and think that I have to force everybody to believe this idea. I think I Certainly would not enjoy the ministry much. That's for sure so you know those are just some of the things On a basic level now when I'm gonna be talking in San Antonio.
I'm gonna be speaking more about you know from a scholarly perspective. Why why is it that these folks? Think that they can get away with the the gross Misrepresentation of others that are part and parcel of almost all the works.
I've ever encountered on this subject. What's really behind it? I think aside from the power of tradition. I think it's a tremendous amount of lack of respect. Most these folks do not have enough respect for those who are reformed to even take time to read their materials.
They've they've come to a conclusion in their younger years that they missed it on such-and-such a point. They're not going to reconsider that they're not going to consider that ever again Therefore they just move on from there, and it's it's a lack of respect issue in my opinion.
So that's one of the things we'll be talking about.
Well, this is you know which is the approach that I usually take to. I don't try to force it. You can't know you can't force it, and you've got to wait and be patient on God's time. We don't something we have to constantly apply to all aspects of our life all aspects of our lives.
But you know who it's really hard on is the pastor of the church That is in the process of reforming. That is is most definitely I'll be perfectly honest with you I am very thankful that I am in a church that is self-consciously openly and maturely Reformed.
Because I don't know that I could Function as an elder in a church that was in the process of Reformation because it is hard work. It is tremendously hard work. And if you know of a church where where that type of Reformation is taking place pray for those that are seeking to have men's traditions brought under the The tutelage of God's Word.
Because I'm going to tell you something That is is Extremely difficult. It takes tremendous amount of patience a tremendous amount of strength.
It's hard stuff. No two ways about it. It's something that we're going through. In a sense not quite the same way, but we're going through that in our own church. In fact, we have a new senior pastor coming.
Hmm, and all he comes with one of his references is John Piper. Oh, well, that's that's a very positive thing there. And it's an evangelical free church, which really doesn't take a position one way or the other so you get a mix although the church is Predominantly reformed as far as the people there.
It does create pretension from time to time.
Oh, I I'm we have folks in channel. That's a bit of experience that very thing within that context.
So I well, no, you know, it's it's it's good to be able to. To be able to have a place though where you can we do have some dialogue on this at times and that's really really healthy.
It is healthy if the dialogue is is handled in such a way that it's not a matter of you know. Compromising the truth or saying well, you know you go your way. We'll go ours that that is. That's one of those difficult issues try to deal with.
It really is. Anyways, thank you, sir. You try to stay safe there. Don't don't get on the roads until they get a little better looking whether for the storm.
I wouldn't have been able to call today. So well, there you go. All righty, sir, thank you so much. Find another Christian in New Jersey.
I'll introduce please, you know, I was in I was in New Jersey recently and it was really really hard to find them. But you know, I'm sure they're there though. The Lord will the Lord will break out a Reformation there.
All right. Thanks, man. You take care. All right. God bless.
Eight seven seven seven five three thirty three forty one is the phone number today? I'm not sure from the other side of the wall here of do we get a grand total of two calls? We have one person in Kentucky listening one person in in New Jersey listening Wow, wow, but You know, you must feel really really alone over there.
I'm very very very sorry. I I'd call if I could I've got a cell phone here. I could call I call it. I could call into my cell phone. That might sound pretty weird, wouldn't it? But I won't do that. We have a Producer of the show Imposter producer of the show alert in in the channel one of the users thinks that he is now in charge of the show and Needs to needs to be properly Disciplined for trying to take over the program anyone in the channel can see who that is.
So we just need to Take take care of that. Oh, yes Mr. Mr. Tim did forget to call today. You do have time yet to get in Tim and Don't cross a omen when no one has called him today Gets up early in the morning gets the gets the coffee going and he only gets Only gets two calls.
I mean, that's okay there's I know that there's a few people in channel who are listening, but you all won't call you won't you won't even take time to call a toll-free number and and and talk to rich, I mean, it's just You know, you wonder how we're ever gonna survive, you know when people won't do that, but so anyways, by the way, I Did want to mention this and I actually just will have just enough time to now a lot of folks have are Wondering where they can get good original source information on Islam and Thanks to Sam Shamoon over at answering islam .org excellent website, by the way, those of you who are Looking for resources on the web.
That would be a that would be a perfect perfect place to go answering islam .org I believe there's a dash between answering and islam answering islam .org excellent Excellent resource. He gave me some some resources I was looking for the hadith now you may wonder what what is that a Basic original source library, of course involves a couple of different translations of the Quran and Then you need to have the hadith now.
There are different collections of the hadith and If you buy them Oh, we have a physician in Missouri first time able to listen live. Yay. That means the poor guy works on Saturdays. We were too. That's why we stopped doing it.
That's that's the whole idea if you buy the Collections the hadith some of them are like nine volumes long and five volumes long and you know $60 for this set and $45 for that set and and so on so forth but the Obviously the easier way to do it Is to get all that stuff on disk and so I was sent off to a Resource where I could define we we purchased and I have now installed the Aleem Which identifies itself as the world's most useful Islamic software?
But basically what this has given me is the Quran in a number of different translations fully searchable as well as the Arabic so on and so forth and Also, then the major Collections of hadith and these are fully searchable and That is extremely useful for example I just I I had read a hadith somewhere about what Issa Jesus was going to do when he returned to the earth and I remembered just a couple of words of it.
Pick out the one word that was I assumed to be the most unusual did a search on it and the second or third reference I looked at boom was it and if you're interested by the way one of the repeated assertions Made about what Jesus will do when he returns you might want to hear this according to Islam what Jesus will do when he returns.
Is that he will break the cross? Break the cross Destroy the pigs and destroy the poll tax and so break the cross the cross is considered a Horrible blasphemy upon Allah's character and You know what if the cross isn't what we believe it to be they would be right in fact I would say that that would be consistent with the biblical perspective That if Jesus has not risen from the dead that we make God a liar and If we if Jesus was not the Son of God, and we are saying that God crucified his son So as to bring us redemption that would be a tremendous slight Upon the character of God, and there's no two ways about it the the cross is a scandal the cross is is very much a A Stumbling block, and it is here as well to these individuals and so we we need to keep that in mind.
When we look at that, but I just I just threw the through the topic into into the program and boom there. It was there's videos and all sorts of stuff. It's what I was looking for it. It you know when you're when you're studying a new area, and I've actually been studying it for a long time but not with the intensity of Roman Catholicism or is or Mormonism or something like that, but there's just all sorts of stuff in fact.
They sent me a catalog here and You know you can get greeting cards, and you know all sorts of wild and crazy things. Oh look at this new arrivals, and there's a lot of stuff here. It reminds me a little bit of my Catalog I get from Eastern Orthodoxy the way it's laid out and stuff like that but there is just you know audios and videos and you know here's Ahmed D dot audio a discussion on the Bible Christianity and Islam in Geneva was Christ crucified the Quran or the Bible and you'll note crucifixion fact or fiction.
Dialogue with Christians is the Bible God's Word debate number one debate number two. You'll notice something about what's there a lot of it. Whoa cool an Islamic Muppet I'm serious. Here is an Islamic Muppet.
He's got the little the little Headdress thing on and it's called. Let's pray and it's an Islamic Muppet. The Muslim Muppets right here, that's that's cool, but you'll notice a lot of this stuff is is very much What it is apologetic it is very much a part of?
No this isn't answering Islam .org. I'm sorry the Muppet Jihad. The Muppet Jihad look out here come the Muppets I'm looking if you're interested. This is Islamic bookstore calm Islamic bookstore calm I'm looking at the printed catalog right now but all sorts of D dot stuff and and it's very much of it is most of it is is very apologetic and so we need to start developing our apologetic much more fully and that's why answering Islam org exists and and We're looking at it.
In fact. Here's the Aleem 6 .0. Wow, they have it listed for a whole lot more in the catalog than I got for online. But anyways, that's the information that's out there if you've been looking for something like that you want to do some study.
There's some original sources for you. It works real. Well. I've been looking at myself well. Hey, thank you very much for joining us on this first Tuesday morning at 11 a .m.. Dividing line. Thank you view who called in you've made riches day the four or five of you that did and.
And I know there are others of you listening in the channel and No show on Thursday. I will be in San Antonio those of you in, Texas. I hope I'll see you then and we'll see you next week here on the dividing line.
God bless. The dividing line has been brought to you by Alpha and Omega ministries. If you'd like to contact us call us at 602 9 7 3 0 3 1 8 or write us at p .o Box 3 7 1 0 6 Phoenix, Arizona 8 5 0 6 9.
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