Calvinism’s exclusive doctrines position it in an untenable place when it comes to people spending eternity in hell. To mitigate the indefensible entailments of Calvinism that consign people to hell (the reprobate non-elect class), they offer various responses. First, they say the lost deserve to be there. While that is true, it does not tell us why they are there since the people in heaven equally deserve to be in hell. Second, they say it is so God can show his full glory in both love and wrath. But damning people to hell is unnecessary for God to show his wrath or holiness since no one needed to suffer God’s wrath to demonstrate his holiness because Christ suffering his wrath for our sin is the quintessential display of God’s wrath.[1] Continue reading →
Author: Ronnie W Rogers
An All-White Church Does Not a Racist Church Make
It is often said that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America. The frequent implication seems to be, the church is the most racist gathering place in America. But is the presence of an all-white church evidence of a bigoted church? I think not, even though I recognize there are racially prejudice people and churches in America. Continue reading →
What Does Critical Race Theory Mean for Me?
I intend for this article to take some difficult concepts of Critical Theory (CT),[1] Critical Race Theory (CRT),[2] and Intersectionality (IN)[3] under the rubric of Cultural Marxism (CM) and to briefly make them a little more understandable.[4] We must seek to understand these deadly concepts because they have moved from secular academia and the identity politics of Democrats to evangelicalism and the SBC.[5]
Here are a couple of emphases and outcomes of these ideas. Continue reading →
Trouble in the SBC: Some Helpful Links
I have written and spoken about the many fruits that still exist from God’s Conservative Resurgence which restored the primacy of the inerrant Scripture in and throughout all of our Southern Baptist entities. I have also written and spoken in a series In Defense of God’s Order and the Gospel about the present peddling of destructive ideas such as social justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, feminism, women preachers and prophetesses in the local church, Me Too excessive right by might, reducing biblical complementarianism to soft complementarianism (or one could say soft egalitarianism) and obscuring the unambiguous message and language regarding homosexuality and gender fluidity. Continue reading →
A Man’s Love for His Wife
I have incalculable affections to share with one bride.
I have a million dreams to be fulfilled with one love.
I have two eyes for just one woman.
I have one treasure in my hopes for tomorrow.
I have thoughts for only one smile to which to awaken.
I have two hands to hold only one companion.
I have one life’s devotion to live with one life’s passion.
I have one heart to open to only one person.
I have one friend with whom to saunter through life.
I have one confidant with whom to share my deepest feelings.
I have one soul to unite with only one soul mate.
I have extraordinary memories filled by only one beloved.
I have scant wealth to offer the one who means the world to me.
I have nothing of value to give that I did not receive by grace.
I have one promise to give to only one, to love you every day.
“Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself.” (Ephesians 5:33).
Why I Must Address the Current Direction of the SBC
On February 2, I will start a Sunday morning sermon series entitled In Defense of God’s Order and the Gospel. I am an expositor in both heart and practice. For the past three years, I have been preaching through Matthew, and we are starting chapter 17. But I believe the current direction of the SBC presents a clear and present danger to God’s divine order and the purity of the gospel; therefore, as a shepherd charged by the Great Shepherd with protecting the flock, I must speak (Acts 20:28–30; 1 Tim 1:18–20). Continue reading →
Calvinism’s Determinism Is Not Biblically or Practically Viable
Calvinism rejects libertarian free will and believes in compatible moral freedom, which means everything and everyone is micro-determined. The following are the definitions of the two perspectives.[1]
Compatibilism
Determinism and moral responsibility are compatible; hence, the name. This compatibility is not achieved by compatibilism being less deterministic than hard determinism. Rather, it is achieved by defining free choice to mean as long as a person chooses according to his greatest desire, he can be considered to have made a free choice for which he is morally responsible; even though given the same past, he cannot choose differently in the moral moment of decision.
Consequently, the difference between compatibilism (soft determinism) and hard determinism is not to be found in the levels of the deterministic nature of each because they are the same. Rather, the difference is compatibilism contends people are morally responsible for their choices if they are made according to their greatest desire, and hard determinism says they are not. Continue reading →
This New Year and Every Day I Ask God to…
Grant that I would confess unguardedly to You since You know my sin more fully than it shall ever be known by me (1 John 1:9).
Grant that I shall confess unhesitatingly and not suffer the loss of one moment of fellowship with You (1 Cor 1:9). Continue reading →
The Paradox of Christmas
On Christmas, we give thanks and celebrate Christ humbling himself and being born a baby boy in order to die for the sins of the world (John 1:29). That is the greatest gift and message of Christmas; may Christ’s humility, which made the Christmas message possible, be seen in us.
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who . . . humbled Himself” (Phil 2:5, 8).
He who had no beginning was born.
He was born of a woman he created.
The served became the servant.
The sovereign became the sacrifice.
He came from the halls of heaven to the hell of Golgotha.
He became a part of his creation.
He was taught to eat, although he created the digestive system of humanity.
He was taught the ABCs, although he created all the languages.
He was taught to start and finish things, although he is the Alpha and Omega
He was taught to make animal harnesses out of trees he created.
He was taught how to make a wheel, although he created the earth a sphere.
He is the Lord of creation, yet he was called the Lord of Flies.
He is Truth, yet he was called a liar.
He is the King of Kings, yet he was denied the throne of Israel.
He exchanged the crown of glory for a crown of thorns.
He existed in eternity and was killed in time.
He who knew no sin became sin for us.
He was God but appeared as an ordinary man.
He who is life died.
He delivered man from God’s Judgement but not himself.
He is the light of the world, but he was buried in the darkness of God’s wrath.
He gave up the infinite and took on the average.
He endured the unthinkable.
He helped the ungrateful.
He delivered the unholy.
He sacrificed his sovereignty.
He sought true servanthood.
He sacrificed his self.
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5–11).
“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3).
The Christ of Christmas!
The Gay Christian? Some Thoughts
I Believe:
God loves every sinner and desires to save every person (Titus 2:11). A person who has been involved in homosexual acts or currently struggles with homosexual lust is salvifically loved by God, and can, therefore, be saved in exactly the same way as someone who struggles with heterosexual lust or the same way any other person is saved (John 3:16; Titus 2:11; 2 Pet 3:9).
I Reject the idea of: Continue reading →