Since Blogger Beta wasn’t supported by WordPress’s Import tool, I had to do it the looooong way. Unfortunately, this means that I couldn’t import Comments, but that’s okay since I didn’t have very many to begin with.
This means that I will be able to delete my old account at Blogspot after I give sufficient warning, assuming I had any “fans” over there. I don’t think so, but sometimes God works when I’m not watching.
I posted the picture of The Potter’s Hatred, a satirical book cover designed by Ergun Caner and a parody of The Potter’s Freedom, an actual book by James White. To be fair, I should post the picture of the Ergun Caner Talking Doll, a humorous advertisement posted by White’s supporters and a parody of Dr. Caner’s debate style. Of the doll, White says this:
The Ergun Caner doll was humorous because it parodies the truth. You [Dr. Caner] repeat certain montras with such force and passion, but, like a wind-up doll, you don’t hear the replies and refutations, and just keep saying the same things over and over again. That’s why it was funny. Your book cover idea isn’t funny because it only shows you don’t understand the issues at hand. See, when the truth element of the parody/caricature is lost, the humor goes with it.
I find this more humorous than The Potters Hatred. I found it even funnier when I noted on Dr. Caner’s blog, immediately after bringing this mock ad up, he used one of the doll’s statements. Apparently, he didn’t realize that, as White points out, satire is only funny when it is true.
Of course, we are God’s creations. As such, He is eternally free to do with us as He elects, “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Rom 9:18). You can’t read “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated” and forget Jacob I have loved, as Dr. Caner is doing in his parody.
I’m not a proper Calvinist, but I think I may be getting closer. I no longer believe that Christianity, on earth now and eternally in heaven, is a choice. I now believe that it is a calling, and that it is not based upon our actions or choices. But, our free will does play a role, what role I am not clear on. Yet.
Predestination is crap–Esau made his own bed. God didn’t choose it for him.
Recently, there was a news story about six Muslim imams removed from a flight. The group began to recite evening prayers prior to take off, and that (understandably) made many people on the flight very nervous. So the imams were asked to stop, but they refused. So they were asked to step off the plane. They also refused. So the flight crew and air marshals were forced to evacuate the plane and re-screen everyone on board, thus delaying take-off by three hours.
Jimmy Akin already responded here. I agree with his view, but I wanted to highlight this statement in particular:
If I were in Saudi Arabia and made open displays of my Catholicism–behavior that would be entirely normal here in America–I would get a much, much worse reaction than what you guys got on the plane–and Saudi Arabia hasn’t even been attacked by Americans. On the contrary, it’s been defended by them.
Jimmy understates their reaction, of course. Jimmy would likely face prison or death if he was openly Catholic in their country. Now the “poor” imams are crying that they’ve been victimized here (never mind their behavior delayed a sizeable group of a people for three hours), when they would have been the first to order a Christian’s death in their country of origin for doing the exact same thing.
What a double standard!
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