Tomorrow, December 9, 2010, I will be guest hosting the Dividing Line webcast. Pastor David King, author of Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of our Faith will be my guest. Lord willing, we will be discussing topics related to Roman Catholicism, particularly some recent blog posts from the Called to [Roman] Communion blog. We will also be taking calls if anyone calls in. We would especially welcome calls from those presently in the Roman communion that have questions about Reformed theology.
-TurretinFan
Showing posts with label Dividing Line. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dividing Line. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Response to Dan's Use of Pluperfect
Recently (link to mp3 of July 30, 2009, Dividing Line Program), Dan called into the Dividing Line radio program. He was calling to discuss the following verse:
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Dan recognized that the expression "were ordained" is, in Greek, a periphrastic pluperfect. Dan also noted that, grammatically speaking, one gets the timing of the action of the verb from the context. Both of these observations are correct.
However, Dan unfortunately seems to have misunderstood how the timing is indicated by the context. In this case, the reference timing is the time when the Gentiles, heard the gospel message, were glad, glorified the word of the Lord, and believed. The pluperfect indicates an action that was "past" with respect to those events.
That means that the ordaining was done before hearing, the being glad, the glorifying, and the believing. That does not necessarily specify when exactly the ordaining was done, which is a point that Dr. White tried to emphasize.
If we only had this verse we could not say whether the ordaining had been done (notice my own use of the pluperfect) in eternity past, a week before the message was preached, or five minutes before the apostle spoke.
Thankfully, we are not limited to this verse, but instead have the remainder of the Bible, which provides further light as to when folks are ordained to eternal life. Dan's apparent error of thinking that the ordaining should occur at some time mentioned in the context is a simple grammatical error that would have suggested that the ordaining took place when they people were hearing, being glad, glorifying, etc.. This mistake has, we trust, been fully addressed above.
On the other hand, however, could not be more clear: they are not ordained to eternal life after they believe. They did not first believe and then consequently were ordained to eternal life. No, the verse makes plain that the ordaining preceding the believing. This may not directly undermine some non-Calvinist views, but it does undermine the view (not Dan's view, I trust) that men ordain themselves for eternal life by believing.
I'm glad Dan called in, and I hope he'll call in again sometime.
-TurretinFan
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Dan recognized that the expression "were ordained" is, in Greek, a periphrastic pluperfect. Dan also noted that, grammatically speaking, one gets the timing of the action of the verb from the context. Both of these observations are correct.
However, Dan unfortunately seems to have misunderstood how the timing is indicated by the context. In this case, the reference timing is the time when the Gentiles, heard the gospel message, were glad, glorified the word of the Lord, and believed. The pluperfect indicates an action that was "past" with respect to those events.
That means that the ordaining was done before hearing, the being glad, the glorifying, and the believing. That does not necessarily specify when exactly the ordaining was done, which is a point that Dr. White tried to emphasize.
If we only had this verse we could not say whether the ordaining had been done (notice my own use of the pluperfect) in eternity past, a week before the message was preached, or five minutes before the apostle spoke.
Thankfully, we are not limited to this verse, but instead have the remainder of the Bible, which provides further light as to when folks are ordained to eternal life. Dan's apparent error of thinking that the ordaining should occur at some time mentioned in the context is a simple grammatical error that would have suggested that the ordaining took place when they people were hearing, being glad, glorifying, etc.. This mistake has, we trust, been fully addressed above.
On the other hand, however, could not be more clear: they are not ordained to eternal life after they believe. They did not first believe and then consequently were ordained to eternal life. No, the verse makes plain that the ordaining preceding the believing. This may not directly undermine some non-Calvinist views, but it does undermine the view (not Dan's view, I trust) that men ordain themselves for eternal life by believing.
I'm glad Dan called in, and I hope he'll call in again sometime.
-TurretinFan
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses
It's not quite a "how to" but the first half of the Dividing Line program for March 24, 2009, provides a good introduction to how we can speak with Jehovah's Witnesses in a productive manner (link).
Enjoy!
-TurretinFan
Enjoy!
-TurretinFan
Friday, April 18, 2008
YnottonY transcribes a DL conversation
I am afraid the title of his post may be a bit misleading, but YnottonY has transcribed a portion of Dr. White's Dividing Line show, and the title appears to be his only comment on it. I have not checked the transcription for accuracy in any formal way. (link)
It's important to note that one impression people might get from Tony's title is that Dr. White denies that God commands all men to repent and believe. He does not deny that, in fact Dr. White affirms that.
-TurretinFan
It's important to note that one impression people might get from Tony's title is that Dr. White denies that God commands all men to repent and believe. He does not deny that, in fact Dr. White affirms that.
-TurretinFan
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