tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post934338350935545200..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Roger Olson behaving badlyRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-68874243116170666132011-03-15T15:56:10.403-04:002011-03-15T15:56:10.403-04:00Peter: Um, you go a bit far in mentioning the &quo...Peter: Um, you go a bit far in mentioning the "cage phase" card...while showing admirable restraint in stopping short of throwing it down. Thank you for that.<br /><br />I do appreciate your sentiments, and understand how I might come across as flirting with cage-phase fanaticism. Time won't permit me to make my case for asserting unregeneracy here, but I hope you'll trust that -- even if I'm wrong -- in my mind is substantially more "evidence" than merely their being Arminian.<br /><br />Suffice it to say I wouldn't date an Arminian, but I don't condemn you for making that call. :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-87209871033540848282011-03-14T16:15:18.424-04:002011-03-14T16:15:18.424-04:00So, going out on a limb…I will take it on myself, ...<i>So, going out on a limb…I will take it on myself, as a senior evangelical theologian, to call out those who are attacking Rob Bell based on rumor, innuendo and suspicion and not on a careful, charitable, critical reading of his book. </i><br /><br />Hmmmm, so, he be critical of those being critical is ok and those being critical as he is is not?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-24455954141168252102011-03-14T13:51:16.858-04:002011-03-14T13:51:16.858-04:00Um, you go too far in saying they're unregener...Um, you go too far in saying they're unregenerate. You make some good points elsewhere, and I realize that you said you'd rather be "'too discerning' than too charitable" but still, that's not a good position for you to take. Makes you seem extremely "cage stage" (to use Dr. White's phrase).Peter Pikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11792036365040378473noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-14938533077780707892011-03-14T13:17:32.973-04:002011-03-14T13:17:32.973-04:00In my estimation, the answer to your questions is ...In my estimation, the answer to your questions is simple: such stalwart (read: <i>unrepentant</i>) free-willers are <i>unregenerate</i>. Not popular to say so, but it's what I strongly believe of folks like Olson, Hunt, Vines, Geisler, Caner, Chuck Smith, et al. If that makes me a divisive, pompous Calvinist...<i>good</i>. In these times I'd rather be "too discerning" than too charitable. We see where generations of excessive <i>laissez faire</i> leniency have gotten us (the church visible).<br /><br />It would be just lovely if well-meaning Calvinist leaders and pundits would knock it off, the ubiquitous pleas for the mysterious unnamed faction among "us Calvinists [or Reformed]" -- presumably a sizable minority if not an overwhelming majority -- to remedy "our" (prideful/puffed-up/judgmental/divisive) ways. Sort of reminds me of the deranged white-guilt-ridden lefties who doggedly maintain that Whitey is to this day inherently evil, oppressive and racist; that "we" bigoted crackers "still have a long way to go" before we can call the racial playing field leveled.<br /><br />So it seems to be in the P&R world at large: "Reformed guilt," the unshakable conviction, whether conscious or latent, that one's being a Calvinist must necessarily make one proud, mean and intolerant. We must constantly, publicly remind ourselves and each other that we <i>are</i> inherently nasty snobs -- just as the poor, picked-on Arminians have it! -- and are therefore obligated to eschew any stance or speech that might give the faintest confirmation of this, even if reason and discernment be forsaken in so doing.<br /><br />I've yet to see anything even <i>approaching</i> this in Arminian circles. Certainly it is necessary for all Christians to guard against pride, quarreling, et cetera; however, it is beyond wearisome to see Calvinists <i>a priori</i> presume themselves, as the Arminians do, to be on "the Mean Team."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com