Just a quick note as it is moving toward 1am here in London. I just listened to the 2/25 edition of the Pastor's Perspective program. A caller asked the question that I had suggested on Wednesday's DL, specifically, how do these synergists explain the picture of regeneration found in Ezekiel 36 where God takes out the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh? Would this not, on their system, require the heart of stone to do the right thing, repent, believe, and then, as a result of that, be replaced with a heart of flesh? So a caller asked them that question. And they (Brian Brodersen and Joe Holden) spent quite a while talking about what all Calvary Chapel leaders talk about in such situations...however, after spending quite some time, they never once touched Ezekiel 36. They did not touch the passage. They left it completely unanswered. So, maybe someone can try calling again and asking them for a specific answer to the text? I am sure the caller has already realized he did not get an answer.

I likewise heard another caller ask about 1 John 5:1 (on an earlier program). It became very clear very quickly that Brian Brodersen does not understand the point of 1 John 5:1. Sadly, the discussion left the text untouched once again. Brodersen does not seem to read Greek, or understand the syntax of the language, but he didn't allow that to slow him down in rejecting the meaning of the text. As time allows I will provide an exegetical response to brother Brodersen, despite his informing his caller today that he tries to listen to me as little as possible.

I had to chuckle at this one this morning. Dawkins has attracted to himself adoring followers, but they are nasty adoring followers. I have noted that a single video I did criticizing Dawkins' childish response to a questioner years ago has garnered not only one of the largest totals of views of all of my videos, but the nastiest, vilest responses as well. Atheists in general see no reason to control their tongue (truly, purity in language is for those who believe God created us communicating beings and hence has a concern over what our language says about our hearts), and when they get together, the result is always vulgar and profane. Seems Dawkins wanted to clean up the forums on his website, so he announced a new policy cutting back on the free reign of his Creator-free followers. Well, they may think him infallible, an atheistic messiah of sorts, but they are still atheists, after all. Who is he to exercise control over them? Poor ol' Richard seems shocked at the nature of his followers. Dr. Dawkins, none of the rest of us are surprised at all. Why are you?

Snow fell on central Hades and icicles formed on the fringes of the Lake of Fire as "His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I." visited BYU and spoke of the relationship between Rome and Salt Lake City. Here is a portion of the story:

He also lauded the growing relationship between the Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their joint efforts, such as providing aid to the poor and needy and combating pornography.

“I’m personally grateful that after 180 years of living mostly apart from one another, Catholics and Latter-day Saints have begun to see one another as trustworthy partners in the defense of shared moral principles and in the promotion of the common good of our beloved country,” he said.

“Our churches have different histories and systems of belief and practice, although we acknowledge a common reference point in the person and the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Cardinal George is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the first Chicago native to become archbishop of Chicago. He presides over 2.3 million Catholics in the Chicago Archdiocese.

Well, we should not be surprised, I guess. Vatican II said Roman Catholics and Muslims adore the same God, so why not find a "common reference point" in the "person and the gospel of Jesus Christ"? Just because the Jesus of Mormonism is the begotten offspring of an exalted man and one of his many wives who lives on a planet circling a star named Kolob, and his "gospel" is the message of how you, too, can be exalted to godhood, that should not be taken as a real problem, should it?

We will be doing one DL this week, tomorrow, Wednesday, at 11am MST (6pm for me here in London!). We will be really pushing the envelope this time: Rich has installed the new webcasting unit, and I will be doing the program via Skype. Hence, we have maximized the possibilities of utter failure! But, we will press forward anyway!

I may well look at a very lengthy, confused article that was just posted by Brian Brodersen, one of the leading figures in the Calvary Chapel movement. I had written to pastor Brodersen a while back, letting him know of my posted response to his comments. I never heard back from him, though, I guess that is what this article amounts to. Sadly, it shows the same kind of confusion on the part of the very leaders of Calvary Chapel that we have discussed before. You can find the article here. Note just one of the rather glaring problems: Brodersen confuses "synergist" (which is the term I used: Brodersen and his fellows are synergists, as opposed to monergists) with "syncretist," and then takes me to task on the basis of his unfamiliarity with these basic theological terms. There would be much value in examining this attempted response.

But, of course, I would like to report on the past five days of ministry here in London as well, so, join us at Wednesday at 11am MST for the Dividing Line!

I would like to thank Doug McMasters and the folks at TRC for getting me through morning rush hour traffic in London this morning to the studios of Premier Christian Radio for my two programs with Justin Brierley. These were my fourth and fifth appearances on the Unbelievable program, and I really enjoyed my time with Justin. The first program was with Adnan Rashid, and we discussed the Bible and the Qur'an, Surah 4:157, and as I knew what Adnan really wanted to argue about, the Gospel of Thomas. Adnan interrupted me regularly, so it was not quite your normal episode of Unbelievable, but Adnan has never realized that engaging in that kind of behavior (including the swipes and comments that he used in our debate in 2008, and again this morning) only detracts from his presentation. Then we had a few minutes break and went directly into an encounter with Sir Anthony Buzzard on the pre-existence of Christ. This was a very different discussion, since Sir Anthony is very genteel, and would normally respond with "thank you" even after I had said something akin to "Sir Anthony's position is rank heresy." So it was a very different exchange.

I do not know when the programs will air, but I would assume probably March 13th and 20th on Premier Radio. I subscribe to Justin's podcast, so when I have a better idea of the specific dates, I will try to post something.

My next engagement is Thursday evening on Revelation TV, doing an hour long discussion on the reliability of the New Testament. Those in London and the surrounding areas should be able to watch live, and, if I have my times right, you should be able to watch on the Internet at 4pm EST here. I hope, anyway.

As most of my readers know, my daring to expose the false statements of Ergun Caner wherein he accused me of engaging in "Jerry Springer" like behavior in my debates has brought out the worst in many Southern Baptist types. It seems that Dr. Caner can say anything, no matter how outrageously false, and he has full freedom to do so. He can impugn my character about the matter publicly, but if I dare point out the falsehood, I am supposed to repent of the heresy of questioning "the Lord's anointed." This kind of mentality is rampant in many circles. It is a sad thing to observe.

Tim Rogers provided us with a post that illustrated the "Caner can do no wrong, let's not talk about what he has really said" attitude just recently, as I noted in a previous blog entry. In the comments that followed we could discern quickly how this activity takes place in these very insulated circles. The process goes like this:

1) Do not even acknowledge the problem (specifically, the documentation that Dr. Caner uttered a clear and plain falsehood on national radio, one that is easily documentable). Ignore it completely.

2) Attack anyone personally with untruths and ad-hominem who would point out the problem with the anointed leader you wish to defend (seen by Peter Lumpkins' first comment).

3) Sound the call to circle the wagons and do everything in your power to make sure the real issue---the matter of truthfulness and integrity---is drowned out by the shrieks and cries of the defenders of the anointed one.

Rational and reasonable people observe this for a while, maybe even attempting to point out the obvious disrespect for truth being displayed by these people, but eventually they give up, recognizing that no rational thought is taking place in the midst of the venting of the emotions of blind loyalty. And once again the real issue is ignored and covered over, the anointed one being allowed to get away, once again, with irresponsible behavior.

I have just returned to my hotel after a wonderful evening of debate at Trinity Road Chapel in London. We had a wonderful turn out for the debate between myself and Abdullah al Andalusi on the subject of the Christian and Islamic positions on the nature of God. Abdullah and I had engaged that topic on the Unbelievable Radio Program back in November of 2008. You can find that video of our encounter from the studio on YouTube. This time we engaged the entire topic in a fuller fashion.

The turn out was very good, with a good mixture of Christians and Muslims in attendance. The weather was not too bad, thankfully, so we got started at a good time. When you listen to the debate you will hear something you almost never hear from me. I asked the moderator how much time I had left. Why? It wasn't because I forgot my timer (it was on my desk). It was because I had mis-set the timer in KeyNote, which I use during my opening. I set it for 22 hours, not 22 minutes. As a result, I didn't get to the most important part of my presentation, because I did not properly pace myself.

Working on my presentation for tomorrow evening:

Here's a recent letter from Karl Keating:

Where the Virgin Mary's house stopped for a rest

Angelic house movers sometimes need a rest too

You probably have heard of the Holy House of Loreto. It’s said to be the house in Nazareth where the Virgin Mary grew up and where the Annunciation occurred. The story is that, to protect it from invading Turks, angels lifted the house in 1291 and flew it toward Italy.

You may know that part. What you probably don’t know is that the angels tired on the way. (Houses are heavy, after all!) They rested—for three years—on a hilltop in Croatia, before carrying the house the rest of the way to Loreto.

Where they rested you now will find the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Trsat. It’s just one of three key pilgrimage sites we’ll visit on this autumn’s “Catholic Croatia” tour.

Since I’m partly of Croatian extraction, on my mother’s side, I’m looking forward to visiting Trsat and the two other pilgrimage sites: the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Snows at Marija Bistrica (Croatia’s top Marian shrine) and the Sanctuary of the Trinity in Ludbreg, where a Eucharistic miracle occurred in 1414, with the wine turning into visible blood.

• Friday 19th February at 8pm
• Saturday 20th February, 3pm

• Sunday, 21st February at 11am and 6:30 pm

• Monday, 22 February at 7:30pm

"I like very informal ones. Formal debates have been taken over a lot by myopic Reformed guys, uh, they try to turn it into these little, uh, show ponies, it's like the Jerry Springer Show, basically, and there's really not any real discussion going on, there's rolling of eyes, its huffing and passive/aggressive garbage." -Ergun Caner, 20:40 of The Pastor's Perspective program, January 22, 2010.
(Then at a later point) "Any doctrine that diminishes the omnibenevolence of God, the fact that He loves the Muslim, and died for the Muslim to be saved, and has a desire for…any doctrine that diminishes that is not from God, it's from the devil."

I will be debating Dr. Robert M. Price, a Jesus Seminar scholar and prolific author (see here for some of his books), at the CRI National Conference May 7th in Innisbrook, Florida. Hank Hanegraaff will moderate the debate. Those who have listened to my debate with John Dominic Crossan know how important this topic is. Dr. Price has expended great effort in elucidating every possible theory that would militate against Christian orthodoxy. He has done many debates as well, so we should expect a spirited exchange. There is a deep stream of "deconstruction" in Dr. Price's theories, so we should be able to see again how very important presuppositions are to the modern attacks upon Christian orthodoxy.

I have put some items on the Ministry Resource list that would be very useful in preparation for this debate (as well as the London trip that, Lord willing, will begin next week). As always, your partnership in these ministry opportunities is greatly appreciated.

Make plans to join us in Florida at the CRI National Conference (I will be addressing textual and inspirational issues in my presentations apart from the debate) in May.

My charge that Luther was flagrantly psychotic when he wrote [The Bondage of the Will] is a clinical one. Luther makes a number of seriosuly[sic] disturbed remarks in this book. Among them, he actually says that the human mind is like a horse with an empty saddle and that either God or the Devil rides in it. This is clearly not the perception of a normal human mind. When I studied psychiatry in med school the professor told us "There are only 2 kinds of people who deny free will: psychotics and Calvinists." In my experience, there is only ONE kind of person. [source]

I feel badly today for those Islamic apologists I know who truly believe that Islam is true. I am not talking about the men like Nadir Ahmed, but the serious minded men I have met who really believe Islam is the religion of Allah. I would name some right now, but I do not want to get them in trouble. I feel badly for them today because I can see so clearly that the Super Star of Islamic apologists, the "Doctor of Dawah," Zakir Naik, is not one of them. Instead, Naik, whose simplistic arguments, borrowed almost verbatim from the late Ahmed Deedat, are fired off at high speed, has been shown to be fundamentally ignorant of many of the subjects upon which he opines with regularity. Please note the refutation of his recent appearance on The Deen Show here. The man is nowhere near the best Islam has to offer if you measure such things in reference to the truth and consistency. However, he is one of the most popular speakers in Islam, mainly because the average Muslim simply wants to hear reasons not to believe in Christianity, whether those reasons are truthful or not. This is a sad commentary.

We have contacted Dr. Naik's representatives, seeking to arrange a scholarly debate with him. He has debated a number of Christians with far less experience in debating Islam than I. They responded by asking for evidence that I could gather 10,000 people. I replied by providing evidence of my publications, debates, and again pointed to the issue that should be front and center to any truth-loving individual: the fact that I have demonstrated fundamental errors on Naik's part. I received my reply today, and for all those Muslims that would love to see Zakir Naik defend himself against the documentation of errors we have provided, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. I provide the entirety of the e-mail:

Started off with some of the very interesting comments made on the Catholic Answers Forums, and then moved to the specifics on the Staples debate, including reading the full context of both of the "Protestant" citations Staples offered. Looked at the broader issues of purgatory, and then moved on to some comments made by Dr. Brown on the issue of Calvinism. Went about nine minutes long, but got to everything I wanted to get to. Here's the program.

Don't forget, there will not be a DL on Thursday, as I will be flying to Georgia at that time.