It turns out that I’m not very good at using an umbrella. Actually, it’s not so much the using of the umbrella that gives me difficulty, it’s finishing using the umbrella where I run into trouble. It was raining this morning, so I walk from my car to my office building with my umbrella over my head. I successfully navigate through the external walking gate, twisting the umbrella sideways to get it through the narrow gate, with minimal rain falling on me. I do the same at the entry door, making it safely inside the building with my hair and clothing still dry. Now safely indoors, I no longer need the protection of the umbrella, so I push the little button on the handle that causes it to close. Only problem–the umbrella is still over my head. All those raindrops that the umbrella has captured now come cascading down on me. This is not the first time I’ve done this.
Author Archives: Steve Long
Combating Semi-Pelagianism
Some thoughts from Arminian theologian Roger Olsen about what other non-Calvinists should (and shouldn’t) believe:
[M]ost American Christians, including most Baptists, are semi-Pelagian, not Arminian and not merely non-Calvinist.
A classical Arminian would never deny that Adam’s sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person’s free will. Classical Arminianism strongly affirms the bondage of the will to sin before and apart from prevenient grace’s liberating work.
[C]lassical Arminianism agrees with Calvinism that a sinner is incapable of making the right decision without the influence of God’s prevenient grace.
Classical Arminianism says there is no point in salvation where the sinner-being-saved is autonomous. Arminius talked about it in terms of “instrumental cause” and “efficient cause.” God’s grace is always the efficient cause of any good that we do. Our free will, enabled and assisted by God’s grace, is the instrumental cause of conversion.
[C]lassical Arminianism affirms the necessity of supernatural assisting grace for any good that a person does including the first exercise of a good will toward God.
[W]hat we should all be criticizing is the rampant popular semi-Pelagianism of American folk religion.
taken from Roger Olson’s blog and comments at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/06/thoughts-about-“a-statement-of-the-traditional-southern-baptist-understanding-of-gods-plan-of-salvation-“
Who Would Be King
Some people have no desire to be king, but they desperately want to be a king-maker. King-making often involves king-breaking, in order to create a vacancy. This desire can cause conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike to engage in stupid, petty behavior.
Being Jesus
We are called to be imitators of Jesus; we are not called to stand in His place.
We were made in the image of God, and we are designed to reflect God’s character. If we have been redeemed, we have God’s Spirit within us, using our hands, our feet, and our mouths to accomplish His will. The Church is the body of Christ, the visible manifestation on the earth of the redeeming work of Christ. However, if we are “the only Jesus they’ll ever know,” then something is terribly wrong.
Harrison Bergeron
“Harrison Bergeron” is copyrighted by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away. Continue reading