"Free Will" IS in the Bible!

For any of you familiar with the theology I promote, I'm certain that title caught your attention. Actually, it's the title of a new Q&A topic. I was sent an email pointing out that the American Standard Version of the Bible renders Philemon 1:14 thusly --- "but without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will."

Of course, that sort of email moves to the front of the line and gets an immediate response. If you'd like to read the new Q&A and get to the bottom of this curious bit of translating, click here and follow the link to the article.

And speaking of reading, if you're not following James White's blog articles concerning The DiVinci Code -- the best selling book that Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are currently making into a movie -- then you need to take the time to read them. Next year the movie will hit theaters and people who are not familiar with the book will likely see the movie and believe all the falsehoods and misinformation presented by Dan Brown. We need to be prepared to answer their questions and give a defense for the validity, continuity, and trustworthiness of the Christian faith. And James White's articles are a perfect place to start. I am hoping James will compile all the articles when he's finished.

Take the time to check out his review. You'll be glad you did. Just click here . Older articles are available in the archives.

He Ain't Heavy

As mentioned before, GCA celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast of our own. My daughter (the official photographer of the McClarty clan) snapped this shot of my brother and me as we took a break from ingesting large amounts of wonderful food. My brother, Ed, lives here in Nashville with his wife and two daughters. They own two local Smoothie King franchises and, despite being only a few years younger than myself, he continues to compete in thiathlons.

He's also a God-fearing man who loves the doctrine of God's free and sovereign grace. He's a good father and a brother beloved --- in both the spiritual and familial sense. And he's pretty much my best friend in the world; the one I can always count on.

Nevertheless, despite all his athletic prowess and protestations to the contrary, I can still beat him at ping-pong on a good day. 

Debating the Sabbath

So, I looked up and suddenly two more weeks had passed. Whew! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and did not consume more than your fair share of turkey. We had a wonderful gathering at GCA the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Thanks to all the folk who brought food. I always look forward to these times of fellowship.

Meanwhile, though I haven't been writing much here on the blog, I haven't been idle. I've composed a 54-page response to a fellow who took issue with my stand concerning Sabbath-keeping. It's available as a PDF file, downloadable to your hard drive for convenient reading and/or printing. You can read the whole conversation here

Thanks to Rebecca down in Louisiana for proof-reading this article for me. So far, she has said, "This is a really good article!" and "It's a great read." So, there's an unsolicited testimony that it's worth the investment of time to read this debate. :-)

I am continually grateful for all the wonderful email I receive and I do try to answer each and every bit of correspondance that arrives in the inbox. It may take a bit of time, but you will get a response.

Thanks, God bless, and keep those emails coming!

Just A Couple Things

NEW ROMANS MESSAGE

For those of you keeping up with the Romans series, there's another installment available under the "listen" link. It's "R39 - Isaiah 53." The process of digitizing and updating these messages has been slower-going than I had anticipated, but we keep plugging.

THE HISTORY OF CALVINISM

Jeff recently sent me a link that I want to share with you all. Phil Johnson (who works as part of John MacArthur's ministry) recently presented a talk on the history and development of Reformed soteriology, which goes by the nickname "Calvinism." You can download the message and listen to it at your leisure. It's a good, not-overly-detailed, overview of the key people, church councils and controversies that led to the development of the viewpoint we now espouse. Take the time to listen. Here's the link:

Story of Calvinism

Enjoy.

What's New?

While I haven't added anything to the blog in several days, I have been writing plenty of other stuff. There are three new pieces in the Q&A section, with more to come soon. The three new pieces (also listed on our "What's New" section) are:

1) Proving the Resurrection. This article is available as an uploadable pdf file (if "uploadable" is indeed a word). You can go directly to it here . This article is based on a transcription of a sermon I preached back in 2001 that goes through the historic facts and evidence that support the reality of Christ's resurrection, affirming the doctrine that forms the very heart of Christianity. The original transcript used to be posted on the GCA website before we underwent our facelift last year. I returned to the transcript, made it more readable (since I don't speak quite as succinctly as I write), and it is now available.

2) Saved, Not Saved, or .... ? Most every Q&A posted on our site started out as an email exchange. Some of those conversations addressed topics that I thought would be helpful to our larger reading/listening audience. And, over time, our Q&A section has become the most popular section of our site. Well anyway, this latest Q&A was indeed a recent email that posited the idea of a third position for humans who were neither saved nor un-saved. It's an interesting, albeit completely un-biblical, position that I couldn't help but delve into.

3) The Passion Week of Christ. While this Q&A has been on the site for a number of years, the chart that was available (as a PDF) was a timeline. That timeline chart was created by Jennifer Showalter from the linear chart I originally created as a Word document. Now both versions are available as PDF files that you can upload to your own hard drive for reference. The new one is available here .

So, if you're disappointed that there isn't anything new to read here in blog-land, head over to the Q&A area (or "What's New" area) and click on the latest stuff.

As always, comments and feedback are welcome!