Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
|
Amazing...Just Amazing
04/25/2008 - James White
This was just too good not to share. (ht: BC). (Updated to a much higher resolution version of the same video).21:31:01 - Category: Misc - Link to this article -
Steve Ray on CA Live! Plus Lots of Other...Stuff Updated
04/24/2008 - James White
I noted this announcement on Steve Ray's blog:The topic this Friday at 7 PM EST is "Bible Verses Often Overlooked by Protestants." It will be preceeded by John Martignoni's 1) Do Catholics take the Bible literally? and/or 2) Which Came First: The Church or the Bible?Given the man's track record, does anyone want to take bets that it will be much more "Bible Verses I Like to Talk About But Haven't a Clue What Non-Catholic Scholars Actually Say About Them"? Maybe I will get a few mp3 gifts in e-mail from TQuid to play on the next DL.
Meanwhile I was reminded lately about the incredible double standards people are willing to embrace in the service of false religion. I was reading this article about more Muslim rioting due to the rumor of someone "blaspheming" Muhammad. Remember the "Muhammad the Teddy Bear" incident a few months ago? I was reminded about how Jalal Abualrub had at one point asked that an agreement be signed that there would be no blasphemy of Muhammad in the debates. Remember, one of those debates was titled, "Was Muhammad a Prophet?" Now, while Islam demands the right to deny the crucifixion, resurrection, and the deity of Christ, without calling that "blasphemy," if you dare say Muhammad was not a prophet, you are guilty of blasphemy. The hypocrisy is blatant, but in most Western cultures, Muslims are getting away with this without anyone pointing to the double standard. What is more, the Muslims who might actually recognize the double standard are the small, small minority. The majority have no concerns whatsoever about using one standard to deny Christianity and another to claim constant reason for being offended. It is truly amazing to observe.
Since I am covering a wide variety of topics, I'd like to thank the Lockman Foundation and Dantona Industries for helping to get the word out on the Ehrman debate in January. I will be talking about the Ehrman subject today on the DL, and I truly believe that this debate will touch upon the central, key elements of the modern attack upon the Christian faith centered upon the reliability of God's revelation in Scripture. Please continue to pray for that encounter, and if you can at all attend, do so! Please also realize that your support of this ministry in the months between now and then is vital to the success of that encounter. The more folks who stand with us during this time the more focused I will be able to be on the task at hand.
Finally, I just had to note the blurb Chris Arnzen put out regarding his program yesterday.
SHANE JACKSON, raised in a nominal Baptist home in Northern Alabama who converted to Traditionalist Catholicism 20 years ago, pursued a career as a Catholic apologist, and then, in 2002, after reading the classic book The Roman Catholic Controversy by James White and hearing Dr. White debate well known Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers on "The Bible Answer Man" radio broadcast, returned to the Baptist Faith, this time with a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, will address the theme: "THE TESTIMONY OF A 'REVERT'".You can hear the interview with Shane here.
Shane, who has been blind since birth, is regularly involved in ministry outreach to the blind. He has also served on the staff of Solid Ground Christian Books (see www.solid-ground-books.com).
12:20:44 - Category: Misc - Link to this article -
Bob Ross: the Danger of Becoming a Mirror Image
04/21/2008 - James White
Up until the day I dared to inform Bob Ross that he had gone way, way over the line in his personal attacks on John MacArthur, we were on friendly terms. But once I dared point out that accusing MacArthur of the things he was involved egregious violations of simple logic (let alone proper behavior), I began to experience the same kind of wild-eyed abuse from Ross that I had come to expect from the king of the King James Only folks, Peter Ruckman. A lot of folks today do not know Ross at one time took Ruckman on. The frightening thing is, Ross has become the mirror image of Ruckman. Or, were they always mirror images, and that is why Ross took Ruckman on? It is hard to tell.Over the past few years Ross has been very busy burying any credibility he might have once had for having published the works of Spurgeon once upon a time. His childish behavior, falling very much in line with Riplinger and Ruckman's outlandish antics, have become common place on his blog and in his e-mail bulletins. Ironically, while he now invests most of his time attacking Reformed men (most often due to his own dogged insistence that he knows what others believe better than they do), he likewise has joined to his crusade an amazingly odd defense of...Joel Osteen.
For a while now Ross has been busily hammering away at that awesomely dangerous, always contentious fellow down in Florida...Tom Ascol. Yeah, that Tom Ascol, of the Founders Ministries. Anyone who knows Tom knows he has a heart as big as Texas and is as kind and friendly a brother as you could ever find, but ol' Bob Ross has been busily mocking and ranting about "the Flounders" for quite some time now. When you read the rants coming from Ross' keyboard, you cannot but help pray, "Oh Lord, don't let me end this way." I hope someone will have enough compassion on me when I get to my advanced years to make sure I don't throw everything I've done in the rest of my life under the bus in the way Ross has been busily burying his credibility and reputation with childish behavior and infantile rants.
Today I note that Ross decided to go back to his play book and launch a few salvos my direction. He evidently has been watching my YouTube videos going back over the Texe Marrs incident. I guess that was sufficient reason to insult me a few times for the fun of it---what his point is no one can really say (he often doesn't have one anymore), but I will gladly put my KJV book, and the work I've done in that area, up against anything Ross has produced anytime. He actually has the temerity to post nonsense like this:
(2) James does not comprehend what Ruckman means by the KJV's "correcting the Greek" and the alleged "mistakes" in the KJV being "advanced revelation." Ruckman actually means no more by this than what James himself practices on this matter, for James is one of the leading "correctors" of the Greek, promoting what would constitute "advanced revelation" over alleged mistakes in variant copies of Greek manuscripts and/or texts.Given that Bob Ross has demonstrated many times that he cannot even understand the plainest of statements on the part of those he intends to lampoon, investing him with expertise in interpreting either myself, or Ruckman, is a foolhardy action, one I surely will not take. The idea that anything I have ever said or promoted would amount to "advanced revelation" is so outrageous and absurd that one can only shake one's head at the person who would offer the suggestion.
For many years I hoped someone in Ross' circle would pull him aside and attempt to talk sense to him. Obviously, there is no one around him who can stop him from his self-inflicted credibility destruction. Back when he was slandering me about my belief in the Trinity, I inquired as to who he elders were: turns out, he is an elder in his church. It is a sad thing to observe, but there is evidently nothing to be done about it, other than to observe, correct when abject lies are told, and pray that the Lord would have mercy.
16:53:18 - Category: Misc - Link to this article -
FIEL and Eros Pasquini
04/04/2008 - James White
I saw this video on Tom Ascol's blog, and I had to repost it here:
I, too, join Tom in thanking Eros for his incredible skill as a translator. When I spoke for FIEL a few years ago, Eros made the work so much easier. But he and I also had a wonderful time talking together about the Lord and His truth. What makes the above clip from Tom Ascol so humorous for me is what happened during my time there. First, you might note that Eros and I look a bit alike. In fact, in this picture, Eros and I had decided to have some fun with that, so I lent him one of my famous loud ties just for the evening. You see, the first time I spoke, as we approached the podium, the crowd began to laugh. We looked at each other with a little puzzlement at first before we got the joke. So I began, "Look! I came all the way to Brazil just to find my long lost brother!" So we decided to take the next step and dress alike to play off on the twins idea. We got a good round of applause!But what resonated most with Tom's torture of Eros with all the next-to-impossible-to-translate idioms was what happened with the other speaker who was with me at the Fiel conference, Pat Campbell from the St. Louis area. Pat's a great guy, but he just couldn't rid himself of his use of idioms or poetry. No matter how hard he tried, he'd still end up trying to quote a line from a hymn or something like that. Eros told him he could do that, if he would just let him know ahead of time, so he could see if there was an already published version of the hymn in Portugese, for example. So by the end of the week, though Pat tried, when he'd get to where he was about to spout off some idiomatic line or poem, he'd turn red, get all embarrassed, and Eros would just shake his head and laugh. We were all in on the joke by then. To this day when I go to St. Louis and meet Pat we laugh about our trip to Brazil together.
In any case, I have very, very fond memories of my time in Brazil and especially of Eros Pasquini. May the Lord bless the Denhams, FIEL, and Eros as they labor for the Lord.
09:02:05 - Category: Misc - Link to this article -
|
