It was the generation of Wesley and Whitefield. Wesley wrote a magazine called (I think) “The Arminian” and Whitefield was of course a solid 5-point Calvinist. The two were best of friends till the end and God poured out His Spirit in revival fire for all the years that these men preached. They did indeed have very open dialogue over the issues (I have the entire works of Wesley), but it seems that at the end of the bantering….nothing was really gained. I wouldn’t call it a total loss or waste of time; theology never is. I simply have come to a place where, for one, I try to make sure that I dialogue these issues face to face or on the phone with people. Second of all, if the differences between the two theological schools of thought weren’t bad enough to keep God from sending conviction of sin and salvation in pure revival, then I don’t think I want to really “go there”. It’s not all that edifying, for one thing….well, at least over the internet it’s not. It’s too time consuming. If folks want to engage the issues I have links here from Calvinists and Arminians alike. I have a link that goes to Studylight dot org and that resource has both Arminian and Calvinist commentaries on it.

So, I don’t know….I just don’t feel an urgency to get into that particular discussion. Maybe one day I will….but maybe not.

mark jr.

Exactly my point. Our brand of love is nothing compared with Christ’s. That’s why I get tired of hearing the over smaltzy theme of “love” hyped to death among Christians who don’t have a clue what real love, like the kind Christ showed, is all about.

I appreciate your willingness to engage in conversation.

What we have to remember that is that Jesus showed His love while we were yet sinners by going to the cross for sinners both past, present and future. His love was not the syrupy over emotional kind that our culture promotes today, but it was nitty-gritty, real proof that He practiced what He preached.

Remember His definition of love was : “Greater lover has no man than he lay down his life for his brother.”

Patting folks on the back and admiring because they seem to be so Spirit led in church. and going out and really showing our love quietly in practical ways are two entirely different things.

Seriously, how many Christians today do you know that would be willing to lay down their lives for sinners like Jesus did?

Ezekiel said that….no, God said it! Ezekiel 23:20. Especially look at the NIV translation, it’s more graphic, but all translation say the same thing. In fact, the literal language is even more offensive to our sensibilities.

Now I’m not trying to use this as license to air my own fleshly nonsense, but if you look at the harsh things Jesus said as well as all the other N.T. writters, you may have to altar what you believe is a right way to speak to people.
As crazy and presumptuous as this may sound, I felt a certain unction to mock the so-called blasphemers. Go figure. I could be wrong, but at the moment I wrote that my mind took me back to Elijah mocking the prophets of Ba’al, Leonard Ravenhill sermons, Paul Washer sermons, Art Katz, Paris Reidhead….etc. Sometimes you have to come on like that.

And isn’t this funny? Those of you who fancy yourselves to be hungry for prophetic things would never dream of speaking like a real prophet has been known to speak in days gone by. We seem to believe that all we’re entitled to is niceties and cutsey gibberish.

G2g,
mark jr.

oh wait…

He did, and we (mankind) rejected him, and continue to reject him today….

So what your saying is, blasphemy of the holy spirit is like when someone gets “saved” and then decides to hate God?

or something… confusing…