Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Open Letter to Frank Turk

Dear Centuri0n,

What's the deal with all the open letters? (such as this one)(and this one)(and this one)(and this one)(and this one)(and this one)(and this one) Have you forgotten how to write regular letters?

Yours truly,

T-Fan

18 comments:

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

TFan,

I think Frank Turk is aiming to write an open letter every week for 2011.

James Swan said...

I had heard a rumor that Turk was going to write an open letter to the author of Hebrews.

Turretinfan said...

LOL

Unknown said...

I was at a taping of Horton's new DVD for Putting Amazing Back Into Grace. I tweeted that I was there. Someone replied, "Oh, you mean Horton's not taking Frank Turk's advice and putting the law back into grace?" fwiw.... lol

James Swan said...

Lane, I think Turk should be invited to be on the WHI to set everyone straight. He can monitor every sentence, and maybe they could give him a buzzer to push every time something isn't right.

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

Frank Turk may even write an open letter to himself to his critics.

Anyways, Frank Turk is in a debate with Puritan Reformed over:

It is necessary for Christians to separate from false churches that do not proclaim the Gospel and the essentials of the Faith.

Frank Turk is taking the negative.

Puritan Reformed (Daniel Chew) is taking the affirmative.

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

"Frank Turk may even write an open letter to himself to his critics."

should read

Frank Turk may even write an open letter to himself to appease his critics.

James Swan said...

It is necessary for Christians to separate from false churches that do not proclaim the Gospel and the essentials of the Faith.

That's interesting. Simply study Dutch church history (Dutch Reformed Church= CRC= URC). Or are they reinventing the wheel, ignoring history like this?

James Swan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James Swan said...

It is necessary for Christians to separate from false churches that do not proclaim the Gospel and the essentials of the Faith.

Here's a question to ask these guys- Why did Jesus start a new church rather than staying in Judaism?

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

Hi James,

I don't think they're answering questions from 3rd-party observers.

IIRC, the origins of this debate stemmed from Frank Turk's open letter to John Piper in which Frank Turk expressed appreciation for Piper. This stirred up people who were dismayed at Piper inviting Rick Warren to speak at one of Piper's conferences. I.e., why is Frank Turk praising Piper when Piper fellowshipped with Rick Warren?

Anyways, that's my limited understanding of how this debate started.

Anonymous said...

What's the deal with all the open letters?

I dunno.

I know this though, here is Jesus doing for an invalid something he couldn't do for himself and I suppose that this story from John's Gospel is just the open invitation some need to hear about so as to have open access through the Spirit to Our Heavenly Father:

Joh 5:5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Joh 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"
Joh 5:7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me."
Joh 5:8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."
Joh 5:9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.


Let it be clearly known that being an elect child of God called to His Eternal Glory in Christ and you do not have anyone to carry you to Him, He stands or sits ready, willing and able to give you living water. And what He gives you He gives you utterly and completely because with His own blood He secured your eternal redemption!

John Bugay said...

I looked at their blog stats -- I think they got a million hits when his first "open letter" got picked up by CNN. Or something like that. That's why he decided to do it.

Coram Deo said...

Frank Turk is the John Loftus of evangelicalism.

In Christ,
CD

Anonymous said...

I think he's writing open letters because he thinks it's a way to get readers. And, really, that's not a bad thing now, is it? I mean, I'm sure you don't publish posts on this blog with the strong desire that no one - except yourself, natch - read them. No blogger goes to his blog and screams out "Yes!" when his posts have no comments and his stats remain at zero.

Turretinfan said...

GB:

Clearly.

-TurretinFan

FX Turk said...

How did I miss this thread?

I'm writing the open letters because it's an interesting way to blog -- something different than I've done over the last 7 years. And the last open letter last week maybe would do some good for those who think it's too [adjective] to write 52 open letters. Challies has written hundreds of book reviews -- is it only for the traffic? (wait -- maybe that's abad example).

As to being the John Loftus of evangelicals, it's the ad ohms that make blogging worth it.

Turretinfan said...

Thanks for your reply.

Ad ohms - the old "to the resistance" fallacies.

-TurretinFan