Debunking the Myths: How Continuationists Misrepresent Cessationism - By Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The unnamed "Publisher" actually quotes some relevant Scriptures, a welcome departure from past practice. But he will prove himself to be a liar, and for that we must deem this bad Bible teaching.

In addition, he targets unidentified charismatics regarding their claim that cessationists are "putting God in a box." This apparently is terribly offensive to "Publisher," leading him to claim charismatics are attacking cessationists. 

Lastly, the author will deal with only this one "myth," the "profound misunderstanding" that is represented by the accusation that cessationists are "putting God in a box."

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Why Do Reformed Cessationists Quote Church History as Gospel? by MICHAEL L. BROWN

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Although we usually critique cessationists for their often faulty reasoning, today we consider the presentation of a charismatic (aka "continuationist"). 

The author doesn't take the deep dive necessary to properly refute cessationism. Cessationists fancy themselves as guardians of correct doctrine, so they come to the party with their doctrines and micro-doctrines already parsed and lined out. So that means the author's superficial explanations do nothing to refute them.

A Sola Scriptura cessationist must be dealt with solely based upon what the Bible says. With the help of the Holy Spirit, of course.

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Of bones and bathwater - posted by Berean Research

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Based on the author's presentation it appears that a false teacher is simply someone the author doesn't like. Or maybe it's a sliding scale. A teacher can get one or two things wrong. Maybe that's a "rounding error" for the 100% standard. So how much is too much? Unknown. The author doesn't tell us. 

With such uncertainty, it seems we should not listen to any teaching.

Why? Because no one has perfect doctrine. No one. Therefore, everyone's doctrine has some bones. Every pastor's teaching has some bones. The greatest theologians in the world have some bones. The author's favorite teachers have some bones. 

And, the author has some bones. The author rejects the idea of eating the meat and spitting out the bones, yet that is the only choice we're faced with. Christians are supposed to grow and mature in discernment, which by definition means recognizing and separating the good and valuable from the unspiritual and false.

Further, "eat the meat and spit out the bones" is not actually about false teaching - i.e. truth mixed with lies. This is how the author characterizes it, but there is also truth mixed with mistakes, truth mixed with immature teaching, truth mixed with bad teaching, and truth mixed with uniformed teaching. 

Not all incorrect teaching is malicious, but the author presumes that there must be a false teacher in the equation, simply because someone's doctrine might vary from the author's doctrine.

The Scriptures have a unambiguous standard regarding what is a false teacher. It's found in 2 Peter chapter 2. A false teacher is an egregious and public sinner. He is actively malevolent. A false teacher is recognized by his lifestyle of excess and total disregard for holiness, teaching gross falsehood.

Which of course means that the author's premise is absurd. But more importantly, there is no biblical call for absolute purity, no fruit that can be born from such a pursuit, and no real endgame for it, since a person can always get just a little more pure in their doctrines. Further, there is no Bible verse that commends a person for their total doctrinal purity. 

There is little benefit in such an approach. In fact, it's cultic thinking.

Lastly, while the author tells us things about what the Bible says, there isn't a single Bible quote except a couple of irrelevant verses right at the end. It mystifies us how a supposed Bible teacher can almost completely omit the Bible.

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What Does TULIP in Calvinism Mean? - by Wyatt Graham

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author undertakes to correct errors related to perceptions of Calvinism, but we have to read nearly to the end before we find a Scripture quote. It continually mystifies us as to how someone can teach the Bible while barely quoting it.

Ultimately, the author doesn't explain TULIP. Nor does he tell us why it's important. Really, why is TULIP so critical? None of it comes to bear on living a more holy life, being more obedient, a better worshiper, or a better servant. 

The whole thing is nothing more than a fruitless intellectual exercise.)

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The Basics -- The Law and the Gospel - by Kim Riddlebarger

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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Kim Riddlebarger has been writing a series called "the basics." We have commented on these several times in our blog, and our complaint has been that his explanations are not basic. Sometimes the topics themselves are not basic.

Today the author attempts to explain the difference between the law and the Gospel, managing to quote only a single snippet of Scripture while expending over 1100 words. It continually astonishes us how a supposed Bible teachers so assiduously avoid Scripture.

He will make numerous references to verses without quoting them. There will be times when it is apparent why: The verses do not prove the author's point. So we will actually quote the referenced Scriptures when necessary.

We would suggest that the law-gospel distinction really ought to be works-grace. 

Why the GOP Became a White Supremacist Party Part 1 - By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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One can be sure that if a leftist is going to explain something, it will not be accurate, it will not clarify, and it will not be intended to impart information.

That's because leftists like Mr. Hutchinson are only interested in The Narrative, that is, the daily talking points and bumper sticker slogans promulgated by Central Command. The Narrative is circulated throughout the media landscape every day, and writers, commentators, and news operations dutifully regurgitate it.

So Mr. Hutchinson pretends to be a truth teller, but he's simply doing his duty to repeat The Narrative, spouting agitprop in service to The Agenda. The Agenda is the dismantling of the system. The system, being racist, unfair, and hurtful to the worker and minorities, must be replaced. 

But in actual fact, none of these issues are actually important to the Left. They are simply excuses for advancing the leftist dream. So, nothing you will read below will be true, accurate, logical, or helpful. 

This article is The Narrative, which facilitates The Agenda. The reader should keep this in mind at all times.

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Bad worship songs - Adonai - 406 United

From time to to we examine the lyrics of worship songs. Our desire is not to mock or humiliate, but rather to honestly examine content with a view to calling forth a better worship expression.

With the great volume and variety of worship music available, none of us should have to settle for bad worship songs. We should be able to select hundreds or even thousands of top notch songs very easily.

What makes a song a good worship song? Is it enough to contain words like God or holy? How about vaguely spiritual sounding phrases? Should Jesus be mentioned? We think an excellent worship song should contain as many as possible of the following elements:

• A direct expression of adoration (God, you are...)
• A progression of ideas that culminates in a coherent story
• A focus on God, not us
• A certain amount of profundity
• A singable, interesting melody
• Scripture quotes or coherent allusions to Scripture
• Doctrinal soundness

Further, a worship song should not:

• contain lyrics that create uncertainty or cause confusion
• be excessively metaphorical
• be excessively repetitive
• imply that Jesus is your boyfriend

It's worth noting the most worship songs contain at least something good. That is, there might be a musical idea or a lyric that has merit. Such is the case with today's song, "Adonai."

Lyrics:

America needs a new sane Republican Party, and here's who should lead it For the good of the nation - by ROBERT REICH

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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One can be sure that if a leftist is going to explain something, it will not be accurate, it will not clarify, and it will not be intended to impart information.

That's because leftists like Dr. Reich are only interested in The Narrative, that is, the talking points and bumper sticker slogans promulgated by Central Command. The Narrative is circulated throughout the media landscape every day, and writers, commentators, and news operations dutifully regurgitate it.

So Dr. Reich pretends to be a truth teller, but he's simply doing his duty to repeat The Narrative, spouting agitprop in service to The Agenda. The Agenda is the dismantling of the system. The system, being racist, unfair, and hurtful to the worker and minorities, must be replaced. 

But in actual fact, none of these issues are actually important to the Left. They are simply excuses for advancing the leftist dream. So, nothing you will read below will be true, accurate, logical, or helpful. 

This article is The Narrative, which facilitates The Agenda. The reader should keep this in mind at all times.

Lastly, Dr. Reich curiously wants to "help" the Republicans. But no leftist wants political competition. The Left always wants total power with no dissent. So all the help he offers is really designed to have an "opposition" that is more aligned with the Leftist agenda.

Leftists hate those who disagree. This means that should Dr. Reich get his way and actually get this new "sane" Republican party he and the Left would immediately commence attacking it as extreme, evil, and dangerous. 

Oh, and we should also note that the sane always seem insane to the insane.

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The Kingdom of God - Present or future? - Advancing with power

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered what we think are unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.” Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were too lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that there is more than one way to interpret doctrine, more than one way to think about the faith, and more than one way to read the Scriptures. We would not suggest that our way is the only way, or the right way; we are not Bible scholars. But we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to rightly divide the Word of God.

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Ladies, Don’t Beat Your Pastors with the Rod of Titus 2 - by Bekka French

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a mystifying presentation. The author never quotes the verses she's talking about. She does quote several verses in Titus but never the subject verses. We have to wait to the first paragraph of the second section before the author provides a reference to the passage. 

Let's actually quote it:

Tit. 2:3-5 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no-one will malign the word of God.

Now that we have the actual passage before us, we can ask the author how this passage is used by women to beat up on pastors. But in 1140 words the author will never tell us.  

We aren't complicated. We want things plainly stated. The author simply needs to tell us how certain women's ministries are negating their church leadership and how they are misusing Titus 2 to do that.  

Because she doesn't do this, we can safely deem her article bad Bible teaching.

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1967 Pontiac Lemans budget build - Episode eight, floor pan and rockers, part one - updated 02/28/2024

Episode one, introduction.

Episode two, trunk panel install part one.

Episode three, trunk panel install part two.

Episode four, door rust repair.

Episode five, tail light panel and rear crossmember.

Episode six, passenger quarter panel.

Episode seven, driver's quarter panel.

Episode eight, floor pan and rockers, part one.

Episode nine, floor pan and rockers, part two.

Episode ten, frame repair and prep, body drop.

Episode eleven, radiator core support and miscellaneous rust repair.

Episode twelve, trunk repair and more miscellaneous rust repair.

Episode thirteen, fender and inner fender repair.

Episode fourteen, panel prep and block and prime.

Now comes the most intimidating job of the whole build, the floor pan and the rockers. This episode will cover the removal of the body, the cutting out of the floor pan, the repair of the toe pans, the firewall body mounts, and the kick panels. Episode nine will cover the installation of the rockers and the new floor pans.

Here's what I started with:

How the Contemporary Church Has Eroded and Perverted True Worship of the Living God - By Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a 100% Scriptureless presentation by the unnamed "Publisher." He trots out familiar complaints and familiar bogeymen, offering nothing instructional or edifying. He makes many assertions about what worship should be but does not tell us how this should happen or where in the Bible we find this information.

Thus "Publisher" is simply telling us about his taste in churches. He's advocating for tradition based only what he personally likes and doesn't like.

We can safely deem this to be bad Bible teaching.
---------------------------

Building my 1967 Camaro - retrospective - Episode three - final details and the finished car

 Episode one, purchase and bodywork.

Episode two, mechanicals and interior.

Episode three, final details and the finished car.

Bonus episode, LS conversion.

Double bonus episode, converting the 4L60e tailshaft housing to a mechanical speedo drive.

Triple bonus episode, the details leading up to the purchase of this car and what it meant.

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This episode has a couple of construction details, but it is mostly a photo gallery of the completed car. 

The evolution of the completed car includes the LS conversion:

and the addition of rally stripes (See below). I also made a couple of modifications, like trimming the rear wheel lips to stop tire rubbing and adding frame connectors: 

I recycled the exhaust kit from when the car had the 350 engine. After the LS went in the exhaust pieces sat on the shelf in my shop for a year and I used a pair of purple hornies as temporary mufflers. The original headers I bought for the LS hung down too low, within a couple of inches to the ground, so I really couldn't drive the car, let alone adapt the exhaust system to them.

So once I got fed up enough I bought a new set of "shorty" headers from ebay:

This was a much better arrangement. It's is a pretty nice kit and includes all the pieces needed for an install. The spark plug wires are clear of the pipes and the left side goes in right past the steering box and stays wide of the transmission.

But because they are shorties I needed to modify the exhaust:

I tucked the exhaust up close to the floorboards, then made a turn up and to the center, entered the frame tunnel above the floor brace that convertibles have, and installed the mufflers in the two recesses in the floorboards under the rear seat and just forward of the rear axle. I decided not to continue over the axle because I did this with my previous Camaro and there is just not enough room around the leaf springs. So I terminated in front of the axle with some stainless steel tips.

Once they were tack welded I removed them to finish the welding:

Then some paint:

And here they are installed:

That is the ground clearance I needed! You can see one of the purple hornies on the floor. And you can see the convertible's floor brace. It's a tight fit.

And the interior:

And the convertible top:

I don't have a lot of pictures with the top up, because it's a convertible... you drive a convertible with the top down.

Here's the completed car, without rally stripes:

My son got me a gift certificate for Christmas 2019:

Ran out of gas one fine summer day, but it's a good view of the stripes:

The stripes are applied like a wrap, not painted. Since the car is not out in the daylight day after day, the stripes should hold up. And four years in they still look good.

So this concludes my Camaro build.  The final three episodes to follow: The LS conversion and the modification of the 4L60E transmission to accept a mechanical speedometer drive, and the concluding episode, an essay regarding the noble tradition of building cars and the legacy they create. This essay includes a description of the inaugural drive of the car.

If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours? - Bumper sticker logic

Seen recently on a new Land Rover:

The owner of this vehicle doesn't seem to realize how obviously dumb this is. 

Building my 1967 Camaro - retrospective - Episode two - mechanicals and interior

Episode one, purchase and bodywork.

Episode two, mechanicals and interior.

Episode three, final details and the finished car.

Bonus episode, LS conversion.

Double bonus episode, converting the 4L60e tailshaft housing to a mechanical speedo drive.

Triple bonus episode, the details leading up to the purchase of this car and what it meant.

-----------------------

I'm taking the time machine back to when I built my 1967 Camaro convertible, now more than ten years ago. Today's episode covers the mechanicals and interior.

Before I went with the LS swap the motor was a mid-seventies 350:

Elon Musk Is a Threat to Democracy - by JEET HEER

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author is a Leftist, and leftists only object to the influence and power of a wealthy person when that wealthy person is not a leftist.

Musk is no conservative, but he doesn't toe the leftist line. And that is sufficient to earn him the derision of the Left. 

Twitter (now X) was fine when owned by a rich Leftist who implemented censorship of unapproved ideas. Now the new owner Musk is staying out of the censorship business and the Left cannot countenance anything that violates The Narrative.

So the author does his level best to associate Musk with unsavory groups. He wants Musk to experience the weight of leftist wrath. He wants Musk to suffer.

His sole crime? Thinking independently from leftists and daring to articulate those thoughts.

Lastly, the author never tells us how Musk is a threat to democracy.

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Building my 1967 Camaro - retrospective - Episode one - purchase and bodywork

Episode one, purchase and bodywork.

Episode two, mechanicals and interior.

Episode three, final details and the finished car.

Bonus episode, LS conversion.

Double bonus episode, converting the 4L60e tailshaft housing to a mechanical speedo drive.

Triple bonus episode, the details leading up to the purchase of this car and what it meant.

---------------------

I've had my Camaro since 2007 and redid every nut and bolt. I thought I would chronicle its transformation on my blog in order to preserve the process of building it. It's more for memory's sake than anything.

Here's the car I bought:

Why They Love Donald Trump -By Bob Passi

Found here. Our comments in bold.

------------------

One can be sure that if a leftist is going to explain something, it will not be accurate, it will not clarify, and it will not be intended to impart information.

That's because leftists like the author are only interested in The Narrative, that is, the talking points and bumper sticker slogans promulgated by Central Command. The Narrative is circulated throughout the media landscape every day, and writers, commentators, and news operations dutifully regurgitate it.

So the author pretends to be a truth teller, but he's simply doing his duty to repeat The Narrative, spouting agitprop in service to The Agenda. The Agenda is the dismantling of the system. The system, being racist, unfair, and hurtful to the worker and minorities, must be replaced. 

But in actual fact, none of these issues are actually important to the Left. They are simply excuses for advancing the leftist dream. So, nothing you will read below will be true, accurate, logical, or helpful. 

This article is The Narrative, which facilitates The Agenda. The reader should keep this in mind at all times.

--------------------------

Women leading the early church? - By Elizabeth Prata

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Ms. Prata recycles her belief yet again about women not teaching/leading. However, in this article she is particularly superficial and at times spectacularly wrong. In addition, she barely manages to quote the Bible. How is it possible to be a Bible teacher and hardly quote it?

We certainly have our own opinions about the subject, but our intent is to examine Ms. Prata's presentation and expose its many flaws.

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How Inequality Was Redefined as “Poverty”—Letting Capitalism Off the Hook - by Adolph Reed Jr.

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The actual title of this article should be, "How Poverty Was Redefined as Inequality." But in actual fact the author does not explain how inequality was redefined as poverty. He doesn't explain how capitalism was let off the hook, or even mention it. 

In fact, in nearly 1000 words he doesn't explain anything. 

The author seems unable to assemble a coherent narrative. He spews out words at a prodigious rate with the seeming objective of causing confusion and obscuring meaning.

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SONGS ARE DISCIPLESHIP - By Andrew Lovette

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The author has a lot to say about a caricature of contemporary worship services, most of it speculative and vague. 

This article is pretty much about the author's tastes.

In addition, the author cannot be bothered to quote a single Scripture.

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Theological Song Review: More Like Jesus - by David Morrill

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We've commented on some other articles written by Mr. Morrill. We've found that he seems to have an ax to grind, which colors his writing in a substantial way. He is simply looking for trouble in the "NAR" songs he reviews, and rigs his rating system to ensure they receive bad recommendations.

We recognize that everyone has their own tastes in worship music and in the way worship is conducted when the saints gather, so we have no quibble with Mr. Morrill's tastes. It's only when he attacks and impugns based on some imagined infractions that we draw the line.

Since Mr. Morrill cannot do us the courtesy of supplying the actual lyrics in question, we shall do so ourselves:

You came to the world You created
Trading Your crown for a cross
You willingly died
Your innocent life paid the cost

Counting Your status as nothing
The King of all kings came to serve
Washing my feet
Covering me with Your love

If more of You means less of me, Take ev'rything
Yes, all of You is all I need, Take ev'rything

You are my life and my treasure
The One that I can't live without
Here at Your feet
My desires and dreams I lay down
Here at Your feet
My desires and dreams I lay down

Oh Lord, change me like only You can
Here with my heart in Your hands
Father I pray make me more like Jesus
This world is dying to know who You are
You've shown us the way to Your heart
So Father I pray make me more like Jesus

And sadly, the author cannot be bothered to quote Scripture. He's sprinkled in a few links to Scripture, but if one is going to do a "theological song review," we would think that explaining from Scripture would be a key component.

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