Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
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Today on a Jumbo Dividing Line
08/30/2011 - James White
"It seems to me that what Dr. Silverman ought to do tonight is he ought to become a Christian who doesn't believe in Biblical inerrancy. That would be a perfectly consistent conclusion for him to draw as a result of tonight's debate. That God exists, that He has revealed Himself in Christ, but he's not ready yet to believe in Biblical inerrancy. I would be thrilled if he made a decision like that tonight." [wild applause] These are the words of Dr. William Lane Craig in a recent debate that we reviewed briefly on the Dividing Line today. I had a few questions for Dr. Craig as a result of these final words in this recent debate. Then we went back to our review of the Reeves/Perkins debate, then the Kunde/Green debate, finishing off with the Fernandes/Comis debate. We may actually finish that last debate in the very near future! Here's the program.And don't forget the WayBack Machine, streaming Dividing Lines from 1998 onward 24/7! You can listen on the Flash Player found here.
Also, please note that Thursday's Dividing Line will begin at 10:30 AM.
14:54:18 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Five Hours of Dividing Line Broadcasting This Week! (Link Fixed)
08/26/2011 - James White
Don't think I can keep this pace up, but I hope it is helpful! Played the entirety of the Perkins/Reeves debate on the Godhead on the stream, and then did a 90 minute DL yesterday afternoon. Started out the first half hour finishing up reviewing each of the references to me and my work by Micah Coate in his horrific new book, endorsed by a long list of people who either should have known better, or who just don't care, A Cultish Side of Calvinism. Then we went back to the Fernandes/Comis debate, then to the Abdullah Kunde/Samuel Green debate on the Trinity and Tawheed, and finished up with some more rebuttal of Roger Perkins. Here's the program.And don't forget the WayBack Machine, streaming Dividing Lines from 1998 onward 24/7! You can listen on the Flash Player found here.
09:31:31 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Today on an Unusual Wednesday Jumbo Edition of The Dividing Line
08/24/2011 - James White
Another 90 minute jumbo addition of the program today, with the first hour spent reviewing Abdullah Kunde's opening statement in a debate with Samuel Green. Then we opened the phones...well, I guess, took Skype calls, mainly, on the TNIV, George Bryson's dishonesty, and the size of Pope Urban the V's right ring finger---OK, not quite, it was about some issues relating to Oneness Theology, but we like to give Johnny a hard time. Here's the program.Don't forget! Tomorrow at 11am we will live stream the entirety of the Reeves/Perkins debate, which will end one minute before we start the last DL of the week, a jumbo edition, beginning at 3:30pm MST. Join us then!
16:31:31 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Today on a Mega-Sized Dividing Line
08/23/2011 - James White
Went for two hours today, having planned to cover four topics at 30 minutes each---and failing that plan miserably. I took way too much time responding to Micah Coate's attempt to get around Romans 9 by chopping it up into disparate, disconnected parts and ignoring the flow of thought and argumentation. I have been told that in this he is simply following some of the rather radical proponents of "anti-Lordship salvation" under whom he has studied at Phoenix Seminary. In any case, we were not able to get back to our study of the Fernandes/Comis debate. Instead, we went back to responding to Roger Perkins, but we did so by looking at his debate with Bruce Reeves. I gave up on the Slick/Perkins debate mainly due to its lack of audio quality. In other ways the Reeves/Perkins debate is superior anyway, especially for our purposes in responding to this form of theology. But then in the last portion of the program we managed to finally get back to where I should be in my thinking and studying, that being the area of Islam. I began reviewing Abdullah Kunde's debate with Samuel Green on the subject of the Trinity versus Tawheed. This is directly relevant to the subjects will be debating in Sydney in October. Here's the program.We will be doing two more Dividing Lines this week. Tomorrow, beginning at 1 PM Mountain standard Time we will do a jumbo sized program of 90 min. In the first hour I will continue my review of the Kunde/Green debate. Then, we will open the phones for the last half-hour for all of you who've been complaining that I have not been taking any live calls for quite a while. That includes our beloved Johnny, who undoubtedly has a question about the personal views of a medieval Pope that I would never be able to answer. :-) So if you have been calling in wanting to get a question aired, tomorrow at 2 PM will be your chance.
Finally, on Thursday, we will get started at 3:30 PM for a jumbo sized program (90 minutes) continuing our examination of each of the debates we have started.
Now, we will be offering something special on the Way Back Machine on Thursday. I mentioned today on the program that I would contact Bruce Reeves and ask him if we could have his permission to play the debate he did with Roger Perkins on our stream. That way people could get the full context of the materials I will be reviewing over the next couple of weeks. He immediately responded in the positive. So, starting at 11 AM on Thursday we will begin streaming the 4 1/2 hours of debate that took place between Reeves and Perkins on the subject of the Trinity. Even those who are not directly involved in doing apologetics with reference to Oneness Theology will find this exchange interesting. It will certainly increase your appreciation of the comments that I make as I respond to Roger Perkins.
Also, I have noted a few people asking about when we are going to finish the Bob Coy sermon. We aren't. There really wasn't anything more to do with that particular presentation, as the only unique part of it had already been covered. I mentioned that when we moved our attention over to the Fernandes/Comis debate.
16:18:51 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Today on a Jumbo Friday Dividing Line
08/19/2011 - James White
We started out tracing the genesis of the incredibly absurd misrepresentation promoted by George Bryson and Micah Coate in their books against Calvinism. We tracked down the original source, and then compared the reality of what was said on the Bible Answer Man broadcast with what has been reported by Bryson and Coate. The contrast is stark. Then we took half an hour to go over the comments by Dirk Jongkind about Bart Ehrman and the subject of New Testament textual criticism. We finished off with half an hour of the Perkins/Slick debate. Here's the program.And don't forget the WayBack Machine, streaming Dividing Lines from 1998 onward 24/7! You can listen on the Flash Player found here.
14:51:27 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Today on a Mega Sized Radio Free Geneva
08/18/2011 - James White
I do not know if we have ever done a two hour DL before. Possibly. In any case, I did not even get through half of what I wanted to cover. So, we will do another DL, though not a two hour one, tomorrow. Might go for a jumbo, we will see. In any case, today I dedicated the program to responding to the outrageous statements made by Tucson area youth pastor Micah Coate, a 32 year old gentleman who just put out a candidate for "The Worst Book Ever Written Against Calvinism," yet a book that carries the endorsements of such men as Paige Patterson, George Bryson, Jerry Vines and Tim LaHaye. It is a classic example of "anti-Calvinism Derangement Syndrome," as I documented today, and will continue tomorrow (along with some other items) in a special Friday morning edition of the DL (11 am MST). Here's the program.Right now I have two items to get to on tomorrow's program: first, I will go through the saga we discovered this afternoon (thanks to TurretinFan, SirBrass, and AOMin, along with others, for digging the info out of the net) concerning how this utterly absurd and libelous section ended up in George Bryson's book, (cue scary music) The Dark Side of Calvinism, p. 372:
Even more pointed, in comments found on the Internet in a section called “Whilin’ Away the Hours,” the Calvinist John Rabe offers what he calls: “A loose paraphrase from the James White and George Bryson debate on the Bible Answer Man:
“begin paraphrase:
“BRYSON: Calvinists believe that God is an evil potentate who causes sin and tyrannically damns people for no good reason and
causes babies to be raped.
“WHITE: Yes, and here’s why I believe that. Genesis 50 says ...
“end paraphrase[.]
“Yikes! With friends like this who needs enemies?”
Remember what the apostle James says:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)
If the Calvinist is right, then James could and perhaps should also have said:
Every good and bad gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights and darkness.
I can understand why the admission of White is so disturbing to Calvinists. In his defense, however, White is only admitting what should be obvious to all Calvinists.
Micah Coate, doing due diligence to check his sources and strive for accuracy, simply took Bryson at face value, did a little editing, and came up with this whopper in his book:
In debating George Bryson, leading Calvinist James White admitted to Calvinism’s view of God. The following is a loose paraphrase from this debate:
BRYSON: Calvinists believe that God is an evil potentate who causes sin and tyrannically damns people and for no good reason causes babies to be raped.
WHITE: Yes, and here’s why I believe that. Genesis 50 says . . .
BRYSON: Yikes! With friends like this who needs enemies?
While White’s response is shocking, I deeply appreciate his honesty in acknowledging the “sovereign” attributes of his god. Because Calvinist theology has misinterpreted certain verses of the Bible for 400 years, they have essentially created a totally new and totally foreign god. (p. 285, Kindle Edition).
We have tracked down the audio clip. Listen for yourself:
I just love the contrast in the methodology and research of the two sides of this issue. Compare and contrast the care I took in tracking down sources in writing The Potter's Freedom; paying people to scan through Chosen But Free looking for Scripture references to make sure I was accurately representing the source (it had a horrible Scripture index and I did not have an electronic version back then), etc., all in an effort to make sure the presentation was not marred by error and straw-man argumentation. And what do we have here? A blog article quoted by a second source in a combox on a website gets picked up by Bryson who was surfing the web trying to find things to put in the new edition of his book to save face over how badly he did in our 2001 debate. Even though George was right there in the studio, and could have checked the recordings for himself, he grabs this absurd little paraphrase, puts it in his book, and then makes an absurd conclusion that he completely knows is utterly false and contradictory to my actual position. Finally, Micah Coate takes Bryson at face value, not knowing he is now putting something out that is about fourth hand and has changed each step of the way that in no way, shape, or form, represents anything even slightly close to the truth, and adds his own incredible "conclusion" at the end as well. A lesson to be learned about the kind of "research" that is acceptable amongst the Hyper Anti-Calvinist crowd, and that gets endorsed by the likes of Paige Patterson and Jerry Vines.
And the second item I want to get to tomorrow is the clip of Dirk Jongkind refuting a key element of Bart Ehrman's textual argumentation. I hope to get to it, we will see.
19:43:14 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Last Tuesday on a Regular Sized DL!
08/18/2011 - James White
Evidently I forgot to blog the DL from Tuesday. We continued both debates we have been reviewing. Just for the few folks who do not subscribe to the DL via iTunes, when I forget to blog it, it is still very easy to obtain. Just use the date of the show. Hence, Tuesday's program, since it aired on August 16, would be:http://www.aomin.org/podcasts/20110816.mp3
And today's, which I will blog in a moment, would be:
http://www.aomin.org/podcasts/20110818.mp3
Keep that simple format in mind and you will never be left behind! :-)
19:05:49 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
A Mega Radio Free Geneva Today Starting One Hour Early!
08/18/2011 - James White
What is a Mega Radio Free Geneva? It's one that lasts for two hours! Yes indeed, three to five PM this afternoon. Why such a long RFG? Well, when you read a book endorsed by Paige Patterson, George Bryson, C. Gordon Olson, Tim LaHaye, Earl Radmacher, and Jerry Vines (there had been an endorsement earlier by that shining example of thought and exegesis, Joseph Chambers), that identifies you as a Scripture twisting cultist like the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons, well, you might just want to respond to it! And that is what I will be doing this afternoon. Yes, folks, we have a new contender for the "Worst Book by an Anti-Calvinistic Zealot" award, and it is by 32 year old Tucson youth pastor Micah Coate, A Cultish Side of Calvinism. Did you know James White changes the Bible just like Jehovah's Witnesses have in the New World Translation? Did you know James White actually agreed in a debate that his "god" (no capitalization for Mr. Coate there) is "an evil potentate who causes sin and tyrannically damns people and for no good reason causes babies to be raped"? Did you know Mormons have their book, The Book of Mormon, and Calvinists have theirs, too, called The Institutes of the Christian Religion, that they take more seriously than the Bible itself? And can you believe that men like Paige Patterson actually endorsed this kind of drivel? Amazing indeed. A Case Study in Blinding Theological Bigotry today on a Mega Sized (yet still low in calories and guaranteed to contain no saturated fats!) Radio Free Geneva!
13:40:21 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Will Kinney's Call and the Following Discussion
08/09/2011 - James White
20:34:55 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
An Amazing Jumbo DL
08/09/2011 - James White
Well, Will Kinney got his 15 minutes of fame today...ok, 12 minutes, 19 seconds to be exact. I started off the program, explained the situation relating to Erasmus' problems in accurately obtaining the text of the book of Revelation, went over what The King James Only Controversy says on the issue (including the footnotes containing relevant information), and then played Mr. Kinney's comments from the video linked below. Then I brought Mr. Kinney on, and...well, you just have to listen for yourself. Only rarely do you encounter this level of religiously induced irrationality. I have seen it often in Muslims (Osama Abdullah, Nadir Ahmed, Ehteshaam Gulam), Mormons (Stan Barker, Louis Midgley, Kerry Shirts), Roman Catholics (Art Sippo) and yes, even atheists (atheism can become tremendously religious in nature). But KJV Onlyism seems to attract these kinds of folks. Just look at the likes of Peter Ruckman, Gail Riplinger, Sam Gipp, Steve Anderson and now Will Kinney. An amazing exchange with a man who simply refuses to acknowledge facts and logic. A sad insight into the strange, circular world of cultic King James Onlyism.After we had enough of Mr. Kinney's wild circular thinking we moved on to continuing our response to Phil Fernandes' opening statement, and then in the last half hour continued our response to Roger Perkins in his debate with Matt Slick. Another 90 minute jumbo edition of the DL! I will post a video of the first hour later today (for those who wish to watch that first exchange, at least from one side of it!). Here's the program.
13:58:55 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Help! I'm Trapped into Doing Jumbo DL's!
08/04/2011 - James White
I can't stop! Well, OK, I can, just haven't chosen to do so. Did another 90 minute version today because I had some e-mail questions I wanted to get to, so did that in the first half hour, then got back to Slick/Perkins, then on to Fernandes/Comis. Didn't get very far in either debate, but again, hopefully useful information and exegesis. Here's the program.18:02:03 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Today on Yet ANOTHER Jumbo DL!
08/02/2011 - James White
No, this isn't going to become routine. I don't think. I will definitely do a "regular" DL on Thursday, for example. But, did another 90 minute version today. Thirty minutes on the Fernandes/Comis debate (well, sorta...snuck too much in about other items), thirty minutes on the Slick/Perkins debate, and then thirty minutes of open phones, with calls on apologetic methodology, naturalism, predominating. Here's the program.16:10:00 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
Tomorrow on Another Jumbo (90 Minute) DL
08/01/2011 - James White
We will dedicate thirty minutes to the Fernandes/Comis debate, thirty minutes to the Perkins/Slick debate, and thirty minutes to your phone calls on another Jumbo DL tomorrow!19:50:22 - Category: The Dividing Line - Link to this article -
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