Archive for category: The Dividing Line

I went back to listen to the rest of Dr. Craig’s comments on Roman Catholicism at the start of the show. Then we took a call from Patrick who informed me that Craig had answered a question from Hitchens in their debate by pointing to Calvinism as a false teaching. Since I knew “Good Ol’ Beau” in California had sent

   Though the file is up, evidently, I’m the only one who can post the DL announcements, and since I left right after the program, and then flew up to Salt Lake, no one posted the DL from last Thursday. My apologies, we really need to get some other folks who can do this so that it doesn’t fall through the

Yesterday on the DL we continued our Radio Free Geneva examination of William Lane Craig’s recent teachings on the topic of salvation, and in particular, his presentation of a slightly altered Roman Catholic ordo salutis over against the Reformation.

   We did a Radio Free Geneva today, starting with a few minutes reviewing an example of really bad argumentation (from Monica Dunnington) and then moving on to the serious stuff, that being the comments of William Lane Craig on the topic of man’s freedom, Romans 9, Roman Catholicism, etc. Important documentation that “theology matters.” Update: Some have asked a bit

Visited with the “studio audience” the first half hour (even talked a little NCAA Women’s Basketball!), then began taking great calls on the canon and the authority of Scripture.

Yesterday’s Dividing Line webcast was a caller-driven program. After some brief thoughts on the submission to Islam involved in the destruction of Bibles in Afghanistan, we turned to the phone lines. The first was about the use/value of the pericope adulterae and the longer ending of Mark. The second provided some clarification regarding the Ehrman debate. We also discussed whether

Went about seven minutes long today just to get our callers in, mainly because I couldn’t go much faster in dealing with a particular allegation of Biblical contradiction. I played a portion of the audio of Bart Ehrman’s appearance on “Freethought Radio” with Dan Barker. Spent some time dealing with the “Jesus died on different days” accusation Ehrman uses all

I just used the “universal” button on the Ministry Resource list to add an external laptop battery. I tested the Eee PC and got nearly 4 hours out of it without using the charger, running Skype and the broadband modem (and running Total Recorder so as to provide a backup audio recording). That’s pretty good, but, I would feel a

I reported on the Barker debate, played my closing statement, and then discussed issues relating to the vast complexity of life and how naturalistic materialists struggle bravely to hold back the tide of evidence that threatens to overwhelm them.

Played brief snippets from two more Barker debates I listened to recently, then finished off his list of “Bible contradictions.” Took some relevant calls as well. Remember, no DL on Thursday; however, we will try to live webcast the audio of the debate that evening. Since the debate begins at 7pm, and I’m assuming that is CDT, then we would

Started off with a fuller discussion of the Calvin/Servetus affair, and then took a call from England on “probability arguments” in reference to the existence of God.

Started off reviewing the comments of the Muslim host of “Islam and Friends,” took some calls relevant to atheism and Dan Barker, and reviewed more of Barker’s debates, and in particular, his claim that רצח does not mean “murder.” For those who like documentation: רָצַח (rā∙ṣǎḥ): v.; ≡ Str 7523; TWOT 2208—LN 20.61-20.88 (qal) murder, kill, i.e., take the life

I really wanted to provide a useful apologetic discussion on the program today, so we started half an hour earlier. I went through some key theological foundations to apologetics from Van Til for the first twenty minutes, then reviewed key elements of the D’Souza/Barker debate. I then finished up with some discussion of Barker’s claims in his book, godless, especially

Today on the DL I went over Dan Barker’s claims regarding the alleged contradiction between Paul in Acts 9:7 and Paul in Acts 22:9. I then continued examining his list of alleged contradictions from a debate earlier this year.

Took a great call on OT studies and the general slide into liberalism in that field, played a section on the Islamic view of intercession and how Islam parallels in Muhammad many of the key offices of Jesus, and finished with a call on the topic of inerrancy and textual variation.

Started off the program with a call from Dublin, Ireland on how to avoid being a “cage-stage Calvinist,” that was quite useful. Also listened to Dan Barker claiming Calvin preached from the KJV, and finished the program with a discussion of “kufir” in Islamic theology.

A wide ranging program once again!

Having written that title, I think it would be more fun to say, “Sounds odd? You’ll have to listen to find out what that is about!”

I started off playing a portion of Dan Barker’s “testimony” about his deconversion, focusing upon what kind of Christianity he left, and making application from there. Then we took our break and had two phone calls on Matthew 16:18 and “upon this rock,” leading to a fairly lengthy discussion of the development of the papacy over time.

I began the program today with a half hour discussion of my 2.5 hour meeting with a Jehovah’s Witness elder this past Friday, spending some time to go into the text in Revelation 4 and 5, playing a clip from the 2003 debate with Greg Stafford on the same topic. Then after the break we started taking calls on a

Played portions of an Iron Sharpens Iron program from last year with F. LaGard Smith, author of Troubling Questions for Calvinists…and all the Rest of Us. Dealt with issues of God’s knowledge, decree, Romans 9, etc.

I was joined by pastor Tony Bartolucci in studio today as we discussed Frank Beckwith’s reversion story and recent book. Also took calls on…completely different topics! One was on George Bryson, the other on the tenacity of the NT text.

   OK, this is just perfect. For all those who struggle with the fact that Arizona refuses to play games with time (for absolutely no reason at all), so that the time of the DL becomes mysterious twice a year. Carla has designed a wonderful clock to help you out! And, of course, for the rest of the year, this lovely

Started off with a pretty amazing clip from Jimmy Akin that we could very accurately dub, “We Don’t Need No Stinking Bible Verses!” Very interesting commentary. Then we took calls on predestination and election and Islam! I also discussed Randall Terry and the liberal Catholic Church in the US.

We finished off the Barker/Wilson debate yesterday, then discussed further signs of the wrath of God upon Western society in the degradation of marriage and the family.

Sorry, forgot to blog it! Started off with more evidence of the fallibility of…me! Talked about a citation error I made regarding Basil of Caesarea, and compared it with Rome’s long history of use of completely spurious works in defense of her claims. Then we went back to the Barker/Wilson debate, which, I believe, we will finish on the next

I began a series today reviewing portions of Doug Wilson’s debate with Dan Barker from 1997. I know I risk many barbs, slings, and arrows for saying Doug Wilson did a masterful and excellent job in this debate, but facts are facts, and he did. But I am not reviewing Doug’s presentations, as good as they were. I wanted to

We had some phone problems during the first part of the program, but, ye olde “reset” fixed that, so we covered…a lot of stuff! Mainly Roman Catholic topics today, even in the calls.

In the first half hour we discussed Sean Penn’s anti-Christian diatribe where he pontificates that Christians should be ashamed of our faith, and then in the second half we discussed apologetic methodologies, contrasting a soundly biblical approach with that of evidentialism.  

Surely one of the most eclectic DL’s in our history, any only partially on purpose! I had intended to address three issues: the discussion over on the ETC blog, some comments on the deep insights available from the 119th Psalm, and a discussion of the Islamic understanding of the nature of man as created by God. Got to all three,