Convoluted Calvinist Conceptions

Misreading Romans 13

Mikey once again misreads Scripture. He concludes from reading Romans 13 that:

Barack Obama was appointed by God.

Mikey reaches this conclusion because he doesn't get the meaning of Romans 13. And he doesn't get Romans 13 because he reads the scripture through Calvinist lenses. These lenses could best be understood from the chorus of a popular Doris Day song, Que Sera, Sera:

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

To the Calvinist, whatever is, is because God ordained it so. Hence, Obama is president because God ordained him to be president.

This is a total abuse of the Scriptures which tell us, among other things:

Pro 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Not all rulership is from God. Anyone who reads the Old Testament Prophets should have a grasp on that fact. There were OT kings who did what was right in God's sight and those who rejected God's rule over his people. How far do you have to look in the OT to understand that?

Romans 13 is most abused in this instance. What does Romans 13 actually say?

Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Rom 13:5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

The passage says:

• It is God 0rdained that there be leaders over us for our own good, ie to restrain evil. The existence of leaders is God ordained, not the particular choices of leaders.
  
• It does not say that every action of every leader is Godly.
  
• Insofar as a leader is in line with God's Word, he is to be followed.
• Leaders are to use the sword to restrain evildoers. Does that fit the current leader or is he the exact opposite?
• Taxes should be paid for civil order. What are taxes paid for today when less than a third goes to defense? Everything but...
  

PP Bleeding over...

There's a conflict that Mikey has kept the PP readers partly in the dark over. Michael refers to it as someone attempting to "SPAM" his PP BLOG. It has bled over here into the comments section of this BLOG due to Mikey's heavy handed moderating of the PP BLOG.

The central question seems to be whether or not Steve Aspinall has links to porn sites. I don't personally know whether he does, but when Aspinall shows up here threatening to sue me for not moderating out the comments, that's quite another thing altogether. I simply won't bow to Calvary Chapel demands to censor anyone here who is critical of them, Aspinall included. Aspinall has shown consistently poor character in my limited interactions with him and has not earned that respect.

My censor policy here is to censor out actual SPAM (ads for viagra and jewelry). I don't often censor people, but when I do it's usually out of control CC pastors and sycophants.

The irony for me here is that CC folks accused me of something similar in the distant past. My page had links (not controlled by me) to pages which linked to pages which were porn related. Guilt by association by association. My way of discrediting their claims was to show that there were CC pastors with similar links to sites which linked sites themselves. Case closed. Sometimes we can't control the links on our pages. Sometimes we can. Can Steve Aspinall? According to the claims he can and has altered some of them since being exposed.

True or not? You decide for yourself by examining the evidence. I've got better things to do with my time.

Another Prediction Fulfilled

Joe Marino posted this in PP:

Joe Marino says:

July 24, 2010 at 10:05 am

I need prayer today. Our son had his son dedicated on Father’s Day. We were not invited. Our former church treats us like non-believers without any cause. The pastor and associate pastor allowed this without thinking about the ramifications, leading to my wife and daughters being very hurt. These people used to be my friends. Anger keeps welling up inside me, and I have to keep praying so that I don’t just explode. Please keep me in prayer.

More Eisegesis

More bad scriptural context from "Pastor" Michael on PP. The passage is found in Heb 13 (v 13 in particular).

Michael uses the "outside the camp" passage in Scripture as if it is describing stepping outside the church. However, the context of the passage is about the relationship of Jesus to Israel. He was crucified outside the city gates of Jerusalem, and the early church needed to understand that faith in Jesus would set them at odds with Jerusalem. They would be (as Jesus had promised) persecuted from the Jews and find themselves outside of what they had long trusted (such as the promises to Abraham, etc).

Rather than the passage being about going outside the church, it stresses our responsibility to our new authorities, the leaders in the church. Odd that Michael, who claims to be a pastor, would have an interpretation of this passage so at odds with what the context of the passage represents. It's not a passage about doing your own thing (as Michael has done with his "own" church). It's a passage about being subject to the church.

I called it again! Swan Song #5

I called it. Michael Newnham's swan song is again over. The attention junkie has returned as predicted! LOL. This guy is a joke.

President of Genesis Counselling former Frisbee convert

Another interesting story about the president of Genesis Counseling (an homosexual reprogramming group) who has a background with Lonnie Frisbee. I've not see this in the catalogs of "fruits" of Frisbee's life/ministry. Frisbee is all but written out of the CC official histories.

Calvary Pastor blames site hacking on the devil

Interesting news story on a Calvary Chapel pastor blaming hacking of his website on the devil.

I guess if you identify your work with God and someone attacks it, that person must be the devil. LOL. I just have to smile.