Guilty by Association

Even after we’ve successfully struggled past the first two-thirds of the word “Calvinism,” often we’ll find a second red herring swimming amongst those last three letters.  I’m referring to the common practice of equating of Calvinism with the humanistic philosophies of fatalism and/or determinism.

Convicted Prior to Trial

If we’re looking for examples of misguided argumentation in the soteriology debate previously introduced, we need search no deeper than the very names by which these theological positions have been identified.  Even on this most basic, easily understood level, straw men are propped up and blown away.  Let’s look at the first of two common red herrings that do nothing but distract from the real issues at hand.

Shootin' Up Tulips

Although controversies in any area of theology can degenerate into the kind of misdirected argumentation mentioned in the last post, it seems, at least in my experience and observation, that one area is subject to more confusion and misrepresentation than several others put together.  This would be the area of soteriology–the study of doctrines pertaining to salvation.

Friendly Fire

Canada’s into a federal election year.  This means that we Canadians will be subjected to a more-than-tolerable amount of political character assassinations and governmental villainizing from every direction.  What makes it so time consuming to get to the truth of any candidate’s actual and fuller views on a given issue, however, is each party’s shameless tactic of mis-representing their opponent’s positions to make themselves look like White Knights by comparison.  Shady, frustrating, but unfortunately not shocking.