The Tulip Driven Life

Hello all, this is the first round of an online friendly debate between myself, Thomas Booher, a Calvinist Christian, and David Delmar, an agnostic. We do not know how many rounds we will go yet, but the only rule is that we cannot exceed 1500 words in our replies per round. The first round will be each of us presenting our opening statements, and all subsequent rounds will be responses to each other's opening statements. With that said, let us begin by introducing the debate topic, which I will be arguing for in the affirmative, and David in the negative which is: “God’s judgment and eternal damnation are consistent with His perfect benevolence toward and love of mankind.” Round 1 (Thomas Booher's opening statement): I confess the God of the Bible, as the one and only triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one essence/being. His original creation is a perfect expression of His nature.  God is not expressing love and benevolence when He judges ...

The Reformed church is deeply divided over many issues, not the least of which is gender roles, or even more fundamentally perhaps (depending on how we are defining things), gender itself, what it means to be a man, and what does it mean to be a woman. What is masculinity and femininity? What does the Bible have to say about this, if anything at all? It should be pointed out that this crisis mirrors the very real issues in our nations today, especially here in the United States, concerning gender/sexuality, etc. It is quite likely that the  # metoo  movement has been able to take root in the church as well because there are real issues of abuse, and because there are real instances of primarily women lying about being abused, stretching the truth, etc. Both men and women are sexual sinners, and I have seen and/or heard of both of these situations, men abusing and women lying about abuse. This of course means that the church is very worldly, rather than the world being ver...

Wow. Friends, I have no doubt that this conference is going to show that prominent professors/theologians/pastors in the SBC, PCA, OPC, and ARP, among other denominations, have lost sight of the heart of the gospel. "Just Gospel" is going to be a coming out party of redefining the Gospel by claiming that much of the evangelical church in the United States hasn't really had the Gospel for, I don't know, probably at least 60 years. Irwyn Ince, last year's PCA GA Moderator, along with SBC President J.D. Greear, are at this shindig. Leon Brown, now of the ARP but also still with Covenant College I believe, as well as the Edmondson's of the OPC, are also involved. Of course, I agree the church has lost the heart of the Gospel, but what's going to be proclaimed here, if it is remotely in keeping with what these men and women have been saying, isn't going to be remotely close to "just" the Gospel. Conservative churches will have to speak out against...

Maxwell begins his book, Outline of Christian Worship, by addressing primitive worship and its origins and growth. He defines worship as consisting “of our words and actions, the outward expression of our homage and adoration, when we are assembled in the presence of God.” The words and actions are governed by the knowledge of God and the human resources we bring to worship, and Christian worship is distinct in that it is directed to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Church has been accompanied by the Holy Spirit in her worship down through the ages, taking a historical approach to worship is valid. Maxwell notes that in the early Church four things stand out, namely that Christians for a time continued to worship in the synagogues and in the Temple, that they shared a common meal known as the Love Feast, and following that feast they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Finally, they would then prophesy and/or speak in tongues, though this and the Love Feast/ A...