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Mr. Challies is Reformed/Calvinist, but he really doesn't tell us anything about his tradition or how it comes to bear on the topic. He makes numerous assertions about this, seemingly pulled out of thin air. He makes many vague, uninformative statements.
Mr. Challies is Reformed/Calvinist, but he really doesn't tell us anything about his tradition or how it comes to bear on the topic. He makes numerous assertions about this, seemingly pulled out of thin air. He makes many vague, uninformative statements.
It's mystifying, really.
He seems to possess a knowledge about things but never tells us what it is. But his presentation is premised on this. Further, he neither appeals to or quotes the Bible, except to assert that "Reformed theology is experiential, but crucially, it constrains itself to the experiences the Bible permits." In contrast, he presents the opposition perspective in the most unflattering way, tilting the debate toward his preferences.
Further, Mr. Challies believes that having the desire for more of God can be dangerous, but Paul himself writes of his longing:
Phil. 3:10-15 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Ph. 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Paul had a deep longing for more, but notice his conclusion:
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
The longing for more of God is a function of maturity. The Bible contradicts Mr. Challies.
Lastly, he neither quotes nor references the Bible. We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.
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