The Kingdom Come

Something I wrote -- Is it poetry? Could it be song lyrics?

I'll run thru fire, climb o'er mountains, swim thru seas for thee.
Desperation, Dedication, Adulation

I'll ring round earth, fly the sky, zoom to the moon for you.
Contemplation, Adoration, Asphyxiation

I'll be born anew, suffer sacrifice, die and die for thy.
Incantation, Celebration, Termination

I'll run thru fire, climb o'er mountains, swim thru seas for thee.
Desperation, Dedication, Adulation

The entry in the online dictionary, dictionary.com defines the word axiom as:

"1.a self-evident truth that requires no proof.
2.a universally accepted principle or rule.
3.Logic, Mathematics. a proposition that is assumed without proof for the sake of studying the consequences that follow from it." -- source

Clarkianism in summary, is the teaching by theologian Gordon Clark (1902-1985) that the presupposition or starting point of Christian theology is the axiom:

"The Bible is the Word of God written"

-- Quo Vadis, Evangelicalism?: Perspectives on the Past, Direction for the Future

This specific reference to Clark's axiom is a quote of an address he gave while president of the Evangelical Theological Society. The fuller axiom and its conclusions are, "The Bible is the Word of God written. Therefore the conclusion is the Bible is inerrant. God cannot lie."

Now, the reason this axiom is actually irrelevant is because it doesn't really start in the correct place. Let us examine.

As a Reformed Christian, the subject of Sola Scriptura or Bible alone is a very important part of my approach to Christianity. But it is not so much "my" approach I want to understand, as I'm not very keen on developing a radical individualized theology. I am pursuing a course that will bring my faith more in line with the "faith once and for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). Unfortunately, I have had Roman Catholics (RC) and Anabaptistic Christians alike tell me that if I want that kind of faith, I'll have to become a Roman Catholic. I disagree.

The topic of Sola Scriptura is prescient because so many times, we non-Roman Catholics seem to use that phrase but instead behave like it is "Sola private interpretation" and to heck with the faith passed down via the apostles (2 Thes 2:15) -- as if the Church was so corrupted within a few centuries, that it was not revived again until the Reformation. This is wrong thinking in that it ultimately undermines the continuity of Christianity and saws off the very branch we claim to sit on.

In this regard, I have had some interactions with Joe Heschmeyer, a Roman Catholic Christian and law student at Georgetown University Law Center.

The issue of what the Bible means by the phrase "all men" [or all people] has been an issue that has been of much controversy in the Church. Typically, the issue is approached in 3 different ways:

1. Universalistic - All men on the planet will be saved.
2. Arminian - All men are offered salvation but only those who choose via freewill will obtain it.
3. Calvinistⁱ - All men must be read in context, where sometimes it speaks of all men on the planet and sometimes it speaks only of "all men" within a specific group.

We have all heard the supposed example of the bitter rivals, George Whitefield and John Wesley from whom we are supposed to consider how Christians should disagree yet remain friendly. But have you heard of Augustus Toplady? Toplady was a contemporary of George Whitefield, John Gill, and William Romaine. At age 15, Toplady converted via the preaching of an Arminian preacher but by the time Toplady was 18 and had read several Calvinistic works, he came to see Arminianism as an incorrect view.

While Whitefield constantly publicly refused to engage Wesely, even though Wesley had turned Whitefield's Calvinst ministry into an Arminian ministry, Toplady took Wesley head on. Toplady first published a work titled, The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted which upset Wesley. This 1769 work was actually a translation of the 1562 work which in great part helped Toplady become a Calvinist. (Confession of the Christian Religion).

No one said being a Christian was going to be one giant love-fest where everything is always cheery. Most of us Christians don't look or act anything like Ned Flanders from the Simpson's cartoon. Flanders seems to be the ideal Christian most non-Christians envision. It would certainly be very difficult to live up to that fictional character. Even Jesus drove out the money-changers with a whip in hand. Even Paul withstood Peter to the face and parted ways with John Mark.

First, be very, very careful. If you googled how to improve your computer or make it faster, you probably got many pages of suggestions and many of them are scams. Some even will put viruses or spyware on your computer.

After many years of trying different programs to improve my computer's performance, I have found a few things that really help. From time to time, I have been asked by friends for advice on how to improve their computers. Well, I've decided to put all of that advice into one article.

The obvious response to the question of Why we are Christians and other people are not is because we chose to be Christians.

Perhaps some people might answer the question by saying we are Christians because we follow Christian precepts and other people, for whatever reason do not.

I'd like to get into what the Bible says about why some people are Christians and others are not.

1. John 10:3-4, John 10:27 (Ps 95:6-7) Sheep hear voice
2. Mt 13:10-17 Why not make it plain?
3. John 6:57-66 Only whom the Father grants will believe

a new feature was added to TKC. Now you can double-click any word anywhere on the website, even if it is not a hyperlink and a popup box will show a definition of the word. Give it a try on this word: epistemological. But it won't just show the definition but also a lot more reference material you may find useful.

Recently I followed a link to an article I saw on a liberal website. The article appeared on Newsweek's website on April 3rd 2010 under the title, A Woman's Place is in the Church with a tagline of "The cause of the Catholic clergy's sex-abuse scandal is no mystery: insular groups of men often do bad things. So why not break up the all-male club?"

So even the tagline informs what the article is going to contain. But let me be clear, as a Reformed/Protestant Christian, I have no admiration for what the Roman Catholic Church has become since Papalism took over. Nor do I want to appear to be defending the pedophiles plaguing the RCC. However, this Newsweek article isn't really about those issues. Those issues are just being used by the Newsweek author to advance more liberalism.